The Fact That Something Is

I Write As A Way Of Keeping Myself Going. You Build Your Life Around Writing, And It's What Gets You Through. So It's Partly Just Curiosity To See What You Can Do.

One Of The Biggest Changes That Ever Occurred In My Life Was Going From The Isolation Of Working Part-time As A House Painter In Henderson County, To Cornell, Where Everybody Was A Literary Person.

I Have Taught Students From The New York City Area So Long I Have A Special Affinity And Rapport With Them. It Surprises Me Sometimes That There Are Students From Anywhere Else.

Teaching Writing Over The Years Intrudes On Your Own Writing In Important Ways, Taking Away Some Of The Excitement Of Poetry.

We Have A Lot Of Long Narrative Poems Written In The 20th Century, But They're Not Very Well Known, And They're Not Read By Very Many People.