From the beginning. I was a poem-writing child. I wrote little novels in my composition book when I was eight, nine years old.

I think translation is an impossible job, and I admire the people who do it in a way that brings poetry to us that we wouldn't have access to.

Rhythms and sounds are often the first thing I hear and want in a poem, so I can't imagine trying to translate something without at least being able to hear what it sounds like.

It takes courage to get clear about what your vision of the work is and to be persistent about it and pursue it, whatever you're saying. I'm still in a long learning process.

Whether the poet is living or dead, they're part of our imaginative community.

People need what they think of as a poem to be read at their bar mitzvah, their wedding, a funeral, whatever. And people are looking for hope and inspiration. I understand that.

Teaching has given me a community that cares about poetry, and I'm grateful for that.

Keep growing. Stay awake. Beware of gurus. Keep a low overhead.

I'm much more capable of cutting back than of expanding. I've gotten very surgical about poems.

I'm trying to stay open to the idea that the Internet is not the evil foe of publishing but the handmaiden that will turn out to be a blessing for poets and writers.

There are some books in which every poem is a facet of the same thing. So the book is like a piece of music. And there are books of poems that I love so much that I carry them around with me.

I finally stop feeding my mind with toxic thoughts and started nurturing my heart and soul with love instead.

Prohibition has made nothing but trouble

I come equipped with stereophonic funk producin´ disco inducin´ twin magnetic rock receptors.

A friend of mine jokes that I have a painstaking royalty complex. Like maybe I was a duke in a past life.

Home in bed listening to the rain getting ready to order a pizza. Sounds like a song til the last part.

Not to write, for many of us, is to die.

I remember winning the first time, you know, suddenly everybody expects, well, okay, now he should win every time he tees it up, win six tournaments.

Brands always mean something. If you don't define what the brand means, your competitors will

The advantages we gain from EU membership clearly and categorically outweigh any disadvantages that come with it.

If all else fails, you could wait for the first corner and tie his dreadlocks to the goalpost.