In a machine, every part has a function. In a poem, every word needs to be there.

I don't like speed. I would have made a terrible Futurist. Even when I did take drugs, I never liked amphetamines and much preferred the slow taffy-pull of time that you get with opiates.

I tend to like poems that are short as well as funny. I love Joe Brainard and Aram Saroyan. And I think their sense of humor and minimalist approach are pretty radical.

I like to look at the interface between words and pictures and wonder about which comes first, a sort of chicken-or-egg type of question.

The earth has always supported me in all my endeavors. I trust it.

I tend to be a pretty spacey and scattered person, so anything that makes me feel "grounded" comes as a welcome relief.

I think the more stability a person has, the more they can follow esoteric or intellectual pursuits.

The inner and outer, the visible and invisible, the abstract and concrete - you've got to get the balance right (not that I do, but it's something to aim for).

Technology sounds quick and easy, but it ends up taking up too much of your time.

Sometimes you get lit students that know a lot about the canon but virtually nothing about contemporary poetry and vice versa. I like to mix things up.

When I shut off the verbal, I like to escape into the visual.

I liked you, cop. From the moment I met you. No… not the first moment. I wanted to kill you when I first met you. But then I liked you. A lot.

The horrible monsters in this world are the ones that wear human face

There's nothing like being on a massive-budget film where you don't know anything, and there's a million people, and no one's communicating.

Pigeons are among the most maligned urban wildlife despite the fact that human beings brought them to our shores and turned them loose in our cities - not something that they chose.

President Obama is launching a new $6 billion space policy that will ultimately take astronauts to Mars. Of course, it's $6 billion and $45 if the astronauts have a carry-on.

[Quantity is the fundamental feature of things,] the 'primarium accidens substantiae,' ...prior to the other categories.

The perfect normal person is rare in our civilization.

Detachment doesn’t mean you don’t let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That’s how you are able to leave it.

You don't make a film because the audience is ready for it. You make a film because you have questions that are in your gut.

I don't really think about recognition; I'm not really involved.