I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality.

I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony.

I have always wanted what I have now come to call the voice of personal narrative. That has always been the appealing voice in poetry. It started for me lyrically in Shakespeare's sonnets.

American poetry like American painting is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet.

I don't like to boast but I have probably skipped more poetry than any other person of my age and weight in this country.

However I learned something. I thought that if the young person the student has poetry in him or her to offer them help is like offering a propeller to a bird.

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

Everyone needs solitude especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.

Perhaps no person can be a poet or even enjoy poetry without a certain unsoundness of mind.

I never thought I'd be doing poetry books. I never really studied poetry. But the first one I did was after my mother died and I realized that people sort of think and talk about her style and fashion but in fact what made her the person she was was really her love of reading and ideas.