I do want to try to put things in perspective today relative to the U.S.-Canada relationship. I would like to start by talking about how important this relationship is to the people of the United States.

It seems I have a hard time being attracted to someone unless I respect what they do on some level. Otherwise I would feel disdain for them. Which is not always pleasant in a relationship. Sometimes it's fun though.

My parents had this relationship that was really terrifying. I mean the level of hatred that they had and the level of physical abuse - my mother would beat up my father basically - and I think I was drawn to images on television that were bright and reflective.

Over the years I've been trying to build a relationship with an audience. I've tried to maintain as much of a low profile as I could so that those characters would emerge and their relationship with audiences would be protected.

My family gave me values that have sustained me through situations that would challenge any person. My personal relationship with the Lord inspires me in all I do.

Daddy loves you but he smacks you and he can shout at you and smash things but Daddy still loves you. So when you get into a relationship with someone who does all of that why would it be unusual?

In order to be able to give a girlfriend the amount of time she deserves you would need time and I just can't give her that. So rather than being selfish or stupid enough to go into a relationship it's just been easier to be single.

I usually write for the individual reader -though I would like to have many such readers. There are some poets who write for people assembled in big rooms so they can live through something collectively. I prefer my reader to take my poem and have a one-on-one relationship with it.

The Russians are turning east to the Chinese - to the Europeans' surprise. It always seemed to me that the relationship between Russia and China would shift from being based in Marx and Lenin to being based in oil and gas.

What we have now is doctors who are actually better technically at what they're doing in their specialty than 30 or 40 years ago but we lost the relationship when the doctor would look people in the eye and say 'I care about you. We can do this together.'