Over the years, I became more and more interested in the forms and techniques in which things could be said.

My advice to my younger self would have been, "Chill. Concentrate on the poems. Everything else will work itself out."

I don't know if there are topics that I unconsciously avoid, but as soon as they pop up in my writing, I try to take on those topics, whether or not I publish the poems.

Unlike Woody Allen, I would be happy to be part of any (poetry) club that would have me.

After my marriage ended, I had an urge to skip that part of my life completely in terms of poetry, not publish anything at all about it.

Writing is performative - and while, yes, the words in essence will be there "forever," poems are often about ecstatic moments rather than trying to pin down a particular truth of an event.

I love going to movie theaters, even in the era of movies on-demand and Netflix. When you are in a movie theater, no one can reach you by phone or other means.

If you are my friend and say to me, "Please don't write about this," I won't.

The spoken word community was significant in making me want to write accessible and urgent poems. Bob Holman, in particular, was an impressive figure.

Jean Valentine and Jane Cooper were my professors at Sarah Lawrence College - and they were uncompromised in their art. They gave me models of how to live one's life as a poet.

I had no idea, when I was writing early on, that my poems would be published or read by anyone, never mind people I knew or would meet. I just wrote urgently - naïvely, I suppose, looking back.

It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to to, We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.

Why do they say ghosts are cold? Mine are warm, a breath dampening your cheek, a voice when you thought you were alone.

Even when the truth is in fact simple, simplicity is still relative.

Temujin nodded. He had every intention to do his bit in the battle, like his mother.

No partnership between two independent companies, no matter how well run, can match the speed, effectiveness, responsiveness and efficiency of a solely owned company.

If my fans want to call me a love God, then so be it!

As an actor, if you were to simplify what acting really is, it's about letting go.

Some people are in charge of pens who shouldn't be in charge of brooms.

A realization and a dissection of the canon gave rise to the work. But there's also a sneaking suspicion of the canon.

One of the reasons why old people make so many journeys into the past is to satisfy themselves that it is still there.