In The Best Fiction, The Language Itself

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 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 Predicted That.

Young Writers Only Take Off When They Find Their Subjects. Since Almost Everyone Has A Family And Stories About Family, That Is Often A Place To Start.

What Actually Makes Poetry Poetry Is Of Course Impossible To Define. We Recognize It When We Hear It, When We See It, But We Can't Define It.

I Tell Students They Will Know They Are Getting Somewhere When A Scene Is So Painful They Can Just Barely Bring Themselves To Write About It. A Writer Has To Draw Blood.