I learned to write with my desk in the living room, next to the TV. But mostly in my head, and I try to be able to do it under any circumstances.

I think about the body kind of all the time, being as how I'm really uncomfortable in mine.

I like having a phrase lying around to get poems started. It's like having a key.

I hope I can write toward my interests. But poets should be afraid of too fluidly responding to what they're interested in.

I just can't write and listen to music at the same time.

I do believe in Jesus as wholly God and wholly human, and I believe the human part was human.

I actually can't listen to music and write poetry at the same time, but I do kind of think about the music I've been listening to when I write.

I don't know that I find either aspect of Jesus more interesting than the other, although maybe I think about the God one more.

I'm always glad that other people are way smarter about my poems than I am.

I had/have a habit of sending books out before they're ready. And then I edit with almost absurd intensity. But I've done about a book a year.

I think I cause a lot of headaches for editors - it's impossible to keep up with the ridiculous amount of changes I make.

The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.

Any amount of theology can now be smuggled into people's minds under the cover of fiction without their knowing it.

A cool tattoo design is any drawing that would also look good saggy.

A fish may love a bird, but where would they live?

Sometimes in life, you fall down holes you can't climb out of by yourself. That's what friends and family are for-to help. They can't help, however, unless you let them know you're down there.

I lost my job as a cricket commentator for saying "I don't want to bore you with the details".

I like the old, classic scary movies. I love 'Psycho,' 'The Sixth Sense,' and 'Poltergeist.'

To truly live a creative life means that you will need to experiment in as many different fields as possible.

I have a sense that many Americans, especially those like me with European or foreign parents, feel they have to invent their families just as they have to invent themselves.

The Comrade Wolf knows whom to eat, as the saying goes. It knows whom to eat and is not about to listen to anyone, it seems.