Part of what we love about poetry is the fact that it seems ancient, that it has an authority of ancient language and ancient form, and that it's timeless, that it reaches back.

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.

If you are 100% sure that you live, why don´t you live 100%?

I think I'm a lot like other moms out there who feel like if we don't have the pecan pie we have every year, then it just won't be Christmas.

Forces of light on earth shall overcome the force of darkness. Complete spiritual enlightenment on earth will occur.

A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of.

Scientists in Australia are working on making biodegradable car parts out of hemp. This might get confusing. When someone says, roll up the window, they might mean, roll up the window!

Inflation is like toothpaste. Once it's out, you can hardly get it back in again.

Noise is a buffer, more effective than cubicles or booth walls.

Theology is not only about understanding the world; it is about mending the world.

We have to be sure [students] understand that racial, national, ethnic, and religious hatred can lead to horrible tragedies.

Your money has never been safe in the government's hands, and it never will be. Governments spend money; it's just their nature.