Heterosexuality - whichever gender you are - says that the other gender is very important to you.

Writing a poem is unwriting a knot, like untying a shoelace that is clubbing your foot.

New formalism is writing with language as flow, like the flow from a dam, running through a desert that has had no rain for decades.

Poetry must speak of others, in order to speak for the poet's imagination, in order to speak of itself; it is slowed down by poetics after its flight is over.

As I grew older - and even when I was younger - it had puzzled me why I continued and continue to be heterosexual.

Poetry has roots, but they are sometimes cut off and still poetry is written.

At a certain point, the struggles with teaching and mothering and so on and so forth, those decline, those lessen.

I'm in my 60s, and a cancer scare just makes you more aware of mortality.

Working women went through a time when they believed that.

[My muse] she's impatient with me, because I don't do what I should do: sit down and write.

Agency over one's sexual self - and the articulation of that kind of agency - might seem transgressive to readers who don't expect it in a woman's text.

Government in the U.S. today is a senior partner in every business in the country.

As with all commandments, gratitude is a description of a successful mode of living. The thankful heart opens our eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surround us.

I had a very happy childhood, but I still used my imagination as a leisure resort.

We can have reasonable, thoughtful gun control measure that I think respect the Second Amendment and people's traditions.

Think inside the work - outside the work

I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right.

Many writers are afraid of writing something bad, so they dont try or give up when their efforts dont lead to a masterpiece right away. If you work at it, you will improve.

The moment is never perfect. It's like that right now - in my head I'm being super lucid, but you never are. You're always fumbling.

I don't collect anymore. Everything is so terribly expensive. I don't see anything I like anyhow.

For I had expected always Some brightness to hold in trust, Some final innocence To save from dust