Poems Are Difficult To Silence.

No Special Writing Rituals. And My Desk Is Usually Cluttered.

I Think The Writing Of Literature Should Give Pleasure. What Else Should It Be About? It Is Not Nuclear Physics. It Actually Has To Give Pleasure Or It Is Worth Nothing.

What I Wanted To Do Was To Get That Sense Of Being In Touch With This Lost World While Holding Onto What Draws Readers And Audiences There In The First Place.

One Of My Favorite Writers Is Michel De Montaigne. My Wife Gave Me A Beautiful 17th-century Edition Of Montaigne's Essays Translated By John Florio. That's Probably My Most Precious Possession.

The Shakespeare That Shakespeare Became Is The Name That's Attached To These Astonishing Objects That He Left Behind.