Human suffering is articulated in language; communication is how we seek help, consolation, etc.

One of the things I'm constantly telling my students is that they're never going to write a poem everyone gets, or if they do, they've failed. They should leave someone behind every time.

I figure I write for people who are intelligent enough to do some labor. Lazy readers are not my ideal readers.

Revision is a good impulse to have.

I turned to human suffering because - this may sound odd - animal suffering is more difficult for me to deal with.

I like to move around in the landscape between poetry and prose, between the lyrical and the narrative.

I never try to force poems into a collection simply because they were written/published within a certain period of time. They will eventually find their perfect home.

I enjoy working on a number of projects - books - at once.

I tend to overuse the word "project" only because "book" is terrifying while I'm still in the middle of something. A project can fail. I don't want a book to fail.

I always revise when I publish in a book. So versions in magazines are sometimes slightly different.

I pay editors. I never ask friends or colleagues to work for free.

I've Learned To Accept that one is never as great or terrible as they are made to feel, and the truth lies somewhere in between.

Problems are not the problem coping is the problem.

There will always be a few people who have the courage to love what is untamed inside us. One of those men is my father.

Let it be said that the makeup artist at '90210' made me look better for the fake red carpet than I've ever looked on an actual red carpet.

It's this simple: If I never try anything, I never learn anything. If I never take a risk, I stay where I am.

I always quit while I am still inspired, while I could still write more. Never let the thread run all the way out.

I drew a picture on the back of a calendar in pencil. In those days they used to give out free calendars, I had no art paper, so I took whatever else I could.

New York is rich in culture, cuisine, and commerce.

There is no tragedy, only the unavoidable. Everything has its reason for being: you only need to distinguish what is temporary from what is lasting.

Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect.