I have always wanted what I have now come to call the voice of personal narrative. That has always been the appealing voice in poetry. It started for me lyrically in Shakespeare's sonnets.

Poetry is the art of saying what you mean but disguising it.

I do not read newspapers. I do not watch television. I am not interested in current events, although I will occasionally discuss them if other people want to discuss them.

But I am not political in the current events sense, and I have never wanted anyone to read my poetry that way.

But I don't think that poetry is a good, to use a contemporary word, venue, for current events.

High and low culture come together in all Post Modern art, and American poetry is not excluded from this.

Learning to live what you're born with is the process, the involvement, the making of a life.

American poets celebrate their bodies, very specifically, as Whitman did.

American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet.

Still, language is resilient, and poetry when it is pressured simply goes underground.

I write in the first person because I have always wanted to make my life more interesting than it was.

We are capable of learning any art.

Sing before the spirits and dance with the earth deitiesAnd you will be able to compose your own tune.Then you and I, united, will clap hands joyously, Singing 'tum-tiddly-um tum-tiddly-um-tum.

Sometimes the only thing that can make someone feel misplaced is the sight of home.

When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

My typical day is I wake up and appreciate that I can still wake up.

If somebody makes me laugh, I’m his slave for life.

Like many indelible family memories, carving a pumpkin begins with someone grabbing a really sharp knife.

I thought, 'My God, I'm gonna make $15,000 a week for 13 weeks.' What would I do with that kind of money? You know, I had never seen anything like that before in my life.

Only those who leisurely approach that which the masses are busy about can be busy about that which the masses take leisurely.

I don't see everybody as much as I used to because as individuals everybody is busy but none of the relationships have changed.