A lot of my students are Asian-American, and it has been thrilling to watch them break through the stereotypes into something alive and surprising.

A poem in form still has to have voice, gesture, a sense of discovery, a metaphoric connection, as any poetry does.

Alchemy is the art of far and near, and I think poetry is alchemy in that way. It's delightful to distort size, to see something that's tiny as though it were vast.

Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.

Fiction is about intimacy with characters, events, places.

I did not have a very literary background. I came to poetry from the sciences and mathematics, and also through an interest in Japanese and Chinese poetry in translation.

I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predic ...

I don't think poetry is something that can be taught. We can encourage young writers, but what you can't teach them is the very essence of poetry.

I don't think the creative writing industry has helped American poetry.

I learned to impersonate the kind of person that talks about poetry. It comes from teaching, I think.