I like the dance between sustained focus and digression that the long poem invites. A controlling metaphor helps to sustain the long poem.

I like to use research to enlarge the poem. And sometimes a rhetorical or syntactical gesture stitches the poem along.

It's extremely important that, as writers, we give a voice to those who don't have voices, including the other animals that we share the planet with and the places that are endangered or being lost.

Once you realize that human actions affect every bit of earth and sky, you realize that the environment isn't just what surrounds us - it's all one whole.

I am a result of what has happened on this planet - how could I find the art to say that? I can't, and yet, I am drawn to it because of the enormity of it. That seems really important.

Bringing science into poetry is one way of acknowledging some of the richest stuff that is in my cultural moment.

I've been accused of darkness by my inner light.

I don't know much about death and the sorriest lesson I've learned is that words, my most trusted guardians against chaos, offer small comfort in the face of anyone's dying.

What keeps me level is the refusal to let the best of human aspirations die in the face of the challenges. I make a moral decision to be hopeful.

We're nature. Our minds are nature. Our desire to make poetry is nature.

As writers, the world is not about individual expression entirely because we are producing works of literature and getting them out into the world.

Is it justice to make evil, and then punish for it?

My experiences remind me that it's those black clouds that make the blue skies even more beautiful.

The sky is not the limit, it's the starting point.

I thought it would be such a sick joke to have to remain to be alive for decades and not believe in or feel anything.

You are accidentally leaving your DNA all over everything in a novel because it's all coming from you.

Money is what makes a man act funny.

Sanctification is possessing the mind of Christ.

Business money reattaches worldwide Deep inside stops the diamond rocks In a million world, billion world, quitrillion world Rap moves on to the year three thousand

I think initially, the record industry struggled a lot with digital media because there are a lot of aspects to it that can potentially destroy our industry.

Corporate culture matters. How management chooses to treat its people impacts everything - for better or for worse.