Publishers have in-house editors, but I hire my own before I submit the work to publishers. They appreciate it and I feel more confident about the material.

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 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.

I always revise when I publish in a book. So versions in magazines are sometimes slightly different.

English words are like prisms. Empty, nothing inside, and still they make rainbows.

So forgive and forget the past baggage of life to refresh your life.

Many men beg for a job but have no clue what hard work really means.

I sold my soul, you brought it back for me. And held me up, and gave me dignity.

The more fantastic an ideology or theology, the more fanatic its adherents.

I was at work but my soul wasn't there, my body was there but I wasn't connecting to what I was doing. Eventually I decided to get out of there and do something I believe in.

Might you be missing opportunities because you have been too quick to ask how instead of why?

Deathless laurel is the victor's due.

Bloody Facebook- and to think I'd enjoyed The Social Network. Clearly Mark Zuckerberg was the devil.

It's such a huge endeavor putting a full movie together, especially an independent movie. I tend to kind of do them when they come my way more than something than I go out and actively pursue.