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 a poem is not memorable, there's probably something wrong. One of the problems of free verse is that much of the free verse poetry is not memorable.

I am them. And they are me. All of us, we are each other. There is no such thing as good-bye.

If the architecture is any good, a person who looks and listens will feel its good effects without noticing.

My story, or my life or my legacy can hopefully show [fans] that once you’re down, that doesn’t mean you’re down forever. You never let up.

The First Amendment...begins with the five loveliest words in the English language: 'Congress shall make no law'.

Any moment you're willing to give up your fig leaves, which you think are covering you, God will give you His righteousness, which will really cover you.

Action is what separates the do-ers from the dreamers.

You have to honor failure, because failure is just the negative space around success.

Use lots of paint and don't worry, they will make more.

Be always displeased with what you are if you wish to be what you are not. Always add, always walk, always proceed. Neither stand still nor go back nor deviate.

You little fool. You thought you could defeat the most powerful being on Earth.