I feel that other people's suggestions are very dangerous. Yet, I can't say that they are always destructive or not useful. Perhaps, rather than having other people tell you how you should improve your work, they should just tell you how they understand your work, what they got out of it, so that you can figure out yourself if what you did was right or wrong.

I find that biographical material holds me back, hampers my creative process, cramps my imagination.

I must say that, on the whole, I prefer fiction to poetry.

I am uneasy about the practice of other people telling you how to write. This is especially true for beginners who haven't yet developed their style and their writer's persona and are easily pushed off the course.

Imagination is so much more fertile than life.

That is one more reason why I write in English only right now. I prefer writing in the language I hear around me for the people by whom I am surrounded.

In fact, the very phrase "teaching creative writing" sounds to me oxymoronic. How can you teach someone to be creative?