I thought, after the Pulitzer, at least nothing will surprise me quite that much in my life. And another one happened. It was quite amazing.
Libraries are where it all begins.
It's unfortunate that sometimes in schools, there's this need to have things quantified and graded.
I loved to read, but I always thought that the dream was too far away. The person who had written the book was a god, it wasn't a person.
I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step.
The joy of working at something to find out what it means to me is what I grew up with.
I keep the drafts of each poem in color-coded folders. I pick up the folders according to how I feel about that color that day.
If they don't read, if they don't love reading; if they don't find themselves compulsively reading, I don't think they're really a writer.
For years, I had heard about the lack of interest in literature in the U.S. and I had complained about it. I failed to understand how people could fail to be moved by art.
Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.
What is ironic is that Allen Ginsberg's importance was in its twilight for so many years that it took his death to bring it to the front page. He electrified an entire world!
To write for PC reasons, because you think you ought to be dealing with this subject, is never going to yield anything that is really going to matter to anyone else. It has to matter to you.
In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things.
The sound of the mandolin is a very curious sound because it's cheerful and melancholy at the same time, and I think it comes from that shadow string, the double strings.
