That desire to reach further is also where I ended my memoir, in 1994 in California, perhaps ironically, looking out to the Pacific and back to Asia, toward the not-yet-written.

Writing a poem is unwriting a knot, like untying a shoelace that is clubbing your foot.

New formalism is writing with language as flow, like the flow from a dam, running through a desert that has had no rain for decades.

Poetry must speak of others, in order to speak for the poet's imagination, in order to speak of itself; it is slowed down by poetics after its flight is over.

As I grew older - and even when I was younger - it had puzzled me why I continued and continue to be heterosexual.

Poetry has roots, but they are sometimes cut off and still poetry is written.

At a certain point, the struggles with teaching and mothering and so on and so forth, those decline, those lessen.

I'm in my 60s, and a cancer scare just makes you more aware of mortality.

Working women went through a time when they believed that.

[My muse] she's impatient with me, because I don't do what I should do: sit down and write.

Agency over one's sexual self - and the articulation of that kind of agency - might seem transgressive to readers who don't expect it in a woman's text.

All plots are cliche.

The assumption of an absolute determinism is the essential foundation of every scientific enquiry.

Selfish acts will only lead to your own destruction.

The establishment of the kingdom of God is forever

Isolation in creative work is an onerous thing. Better to have negative criticism than nothing at all.

I have this dream life where I get to be a celebrity but I get to kind of navigate the world fairly easily because I'm always in character.

Every moment is a new beginning.

I let go of all expectations. People, places and things are free to be themselves, and I am free to be me.

The fool shouts loudly, thinking to impress the world.

I'm feminine, but I wouldn't say that I'm girly in any way at all.