The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that for a minute the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something.

I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding.

There are distinct duties of a poet laureate. I plan a reading series at the Library of Congress and advise the librarian. The rest is how I want to promote poetry.

Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is you need to talk with children to teachers and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early.

Have you ever heard a good joke? If you've ever heard someone just right with the right pacing then you're already on the way to poetry. It's about using words in very precise ways and using gesture.

I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls because I think those are the two elements of poetry.

I'm not a great poetry fan.

While also importantly not wanting to dumb it down or pretend the days of 'difficult' poetry are over because we live in a pluralist culture and there's room for 'difficult' poetry alongside rap and everything else. And poetry won't be for everyone but everyone should have the choice.

Poetry is the deification of reality.

Written poetry is worth reading once and then should be destroyed. Let the dead poets make way for others.