I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predicted that.

You have to really dive deep back into yourself and get rid of so much modern analytical categorization. It's one of the great things poetry does.

It was less a literary thing than a linguistic, philosophical preoccupation... discovering how far you can go with language to create immediate, elementary experience.

I have taught students from the New York City area so long I have a special affinity and rapport with them. It surprises me sometimes that there are students from anywhere else.

Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.

A lot of my students are Asian-American, and it has been thrilling to watch them break through the stereotypes into something alive and surprising.

Maybe the example of Southern fiction writing has been so powerful that Southern poets have sort of keyed themselves to that.

I seem to keep returning to my father in poems because his personality was so extreme, so driven. He did everything to excess.

Fiction is about intimacy with characters, events, places.

Some people want to call me an Appalachian writer, even though I know some people use regional labels to belittle.

The young people have MTV and rock and roll. Why would they go to read poetry? Poetry belongs to the Stone Age. It awakens in us perceptions that go back to those times.

I know you’re scared, Letti, but sweetheart…you haven’t seen anything yet. You’ve not known true fear...

If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.

I'm dedicated to bringing to life what the author is trying to portray. I try to make the producers cry and the crew laugh.

A politician's record is like a tin kettle to a dog's tale - it's a noisy appendage, wich makes the dog conspicuous and invites everybody to shy a brick at him.

Successful model? That's a myth. The year I modeled was the most painful year of my life. Editors would always talk to you in the third person as though you were merely a piece of merchandise.

By hearing from the Guru, we can understand what is the desire of Lord within our heart.

Make something beautiful before you are dead.

With what shift and pains we come into the World we remember not; but 'tis commonly found no easy matter to get out of it.

Take heed, dear heart, of this large privilege; The hardest knife ill-used doth lose his edge.

The point to remember is that a giant leap into space can be a giant leap toward peace down below.