The things that I dislike passionately, I have come to realize, are also part of me.

Writing a poem is unwriting a knot, like untying a shoelace that is clubbing your foot.

New formalism is writing with language as flow, like the flow from a dam, running through a desert that has had no rain for decades.

Poetry must speak of others, in order to speak for the poet's imagination, in order to speak of itself; it is slowed down by poetics after its flight is over.

As I grew older - and even when I was younger - it had puzzled me why I continued and continue to be heterosexual.

Poetry has roots, but they are sometimes cut off and still poetry is written.

At a certain point, the struggles with teaching and mothering and so on and so forth, those decline, those lessen.

I'm in my 60s, and a cancer scare just makes you more aware of mortality.

Working women went through a time when they believed that.

[My muse] she's impatient with me, because I don't do what I should do: sit down and write.

Agency over one's sexual self - and the articulation of that kind of agency - might seem transgressive to readers who don't expect it in a woman's text.

Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.

Never feel intimidated by defeat nor death, but rather intimidate life with your dreams.

His silence helps him come off as something of a seer, a whispering muse.

I always think that you should be striving to write your best song.

I still want my right to defend myself. A railroad operation, and you know it, from Nixon on down. they got you running around violating my constitutional rights.

I'm always on duty, so I tend to wear suits. I've got double-breasted and single-breasted, mostly dark blues and grays. I'm obsessed with them, and I always have been.

There is no such thing as group originality, group creativity or group perspicacity.

The greatest thing we can do to be closer to our own lives and to the freshness of living is to open up again.

You don't need a rope to pinch a stranger's butt.

The advice I would give would be to know that it's ok and natural to be nervous. The key is to rehearse, always be yourself and don't be afraid to not be perfect as we all make mistakes.