The best books of our times have included the three mature volumes of Philip Larkin. They're very short books of poems, and very carefully arranged.

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.

Nature decrees that we do not exceed the speed of light. All other impossibilities are optional.

Nobody introduces us to inspiration…it glows in our thoughts, it lives in our heart, It is all around us in the form of sunshine, in the clouds. It changes our reality - choice lies with us.

I love Spanish cities, particularly Barcelona, Madrid and Palma, which has the most amazing cathedral that I once went to for a wedding.

When we are afraid we ought not to occupy ourselves with endeavoring to prove that there is no danger, but in strengthening ourselves to go on in spite of the danger.

My mom always told me that I could be anything I wanted to be. And I truly, actually believed it. And I fought.

No student of history can fail to see the moral interest of the Middle Ages, any more than an artist can fail to see their aesthetic interest.

I dont think you can look for love. All you can do is get yourself in a situation where you dont discourage something that may be rather nice.

There is so much data available to us, but most data won't help us succeed.

I still think it's really quite wonderful when I read a sentence of mine and it has that quality of lastingness.

Never buy four C-plus paintings when you can buy one A.