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.

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.

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

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 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.

You cannot have a society of angels except in heaven

Baseball is drama with an endless run and an ever-changing cast.

There are two things that come very easily to me: rooting for New York sports teams and making mistakes.

A dream will always triumph over reality, once it is given the chance.

Men build society and society builds men.

I am not interested in having somebody telling that what I have to water down my message or that some advertising person would not like it.

Email is a 40-year-old technology that is not going away for very good reasons - it's the cockroach of the Internet.

Religion is the balm of the people.

My power of speech, unimpeachable. Only 19 but my mind is older.

Once you don't vote your ideals ... that has serious undermining affects. It erodes the moral basis of our democracy.