Being a poet is like having an invisible partner. It isn't easy. But you can't live without it either. Talent is only 10 per cent. The rest is obsession.

There's the space that you soar into, the space that you sometimes break through to, and hang in. A sort of gasp or gap.

If I knew how to say it directly, I would not need to write poetry. I would just talk to people and be happy.

All I do and say and think 'as a poet' is much truer and more intimate than anything I say face to face.

I like to think that I'm giving a voice to the silenced.

I feel much safer faced with a blank sheet of paper than I do with a real person.

An audience sabotages my freedom, devastates my innocence, corrupts my integrity, inhibits my great joy - and of course gives me further to fall.

Poetry is a big space and I love it.

When I was first published it was like having people rushing in coming to find out where I was hiding. Scary!

I'm not so sure that the value of art is all it is cracked up to be.

She stood on the edge of tomorrow, a one person vanguard that believe. The city would soon follow her lead.

Everyone who keeps a secret, itches to tell it.

You have to be very strong and headstrong to make your place. You have to know how to say no. Patience is very important.

Ostensibly rigorous and realistic, contemporary conservatism is an ideology of denial. Its symbol is a smile button.

Sweet is true love, though given in vain.

The individual's right to pursue his own vision of the best ration of pleasure to pain: utterly sacrosanct.

The values of Islam are expressed by Muslims clearly. September 11 changed the world, and put Muslims on the spotlight.

Pessimism, she is a fond friend of yours, yes?" - That's uncalled for. I barely know her. Mere acquaintances, at best.

Yes. Do you know people who are really nice, but when they get together with somebody in particular, they become obnoxious jerks?