“Writing is a supernatural thing.”
“He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize”
“...the trouble with poetry is that it encourages the writing of more poetry...”
“..in the last few years American poetry has come out of a poetry of complaint, not praising, and it was initially maybe rich. And it can continue to be rich if we remember that we shouldn't write out of complaint. We should write out of grief, but not grievance. Grief is rich, ecstatic. But grievance is not -- it's a complaint, it's whining.”
“People wish to be poets more than they wish to write poetry, and that's a mistake. One should wish to celebrate more than one wishes to be celebrated.”