I seem to thrive by destroying the last thing I did, in a kind of cartoon Nietzsche way. Emerson says in "Experience" something like "every ultimate ….

The main thing in poetry criticism is that I have all these opinions, and I love having something to do with them. And I think it's important that pe….

I treat myself as one of the sources. And, again, I think that’s accurate. One of the poets I read most frequently is myself. I really do. I read my ….

One problem with writing on the computer, as I do, is that the page is never really 'blank." It is backed by all this energy or potential energy...on….

I do care about the consequences of being negative toward people who are powerful. But I'm more afraid of not being taken seriously as a critic - by ….

I was never trying to be funny. Being funny feels to me like an alternate form of confessionality - that is, a way of dismantling the distance betwee….

It's often said that elephants are the most human of animals - there's something comical about their acquiescence, and tragic also. The long elephant….

I write to get myself writing. That and read Wallace Stevens' "An Ordinary Evening in New Haven" for the umpteenth time. Certain authors for me, cert….

The issue is that when you're a critic it's hard to tell the difference between the thrill of denouncing and telling the truth. Telling the truth to ….

I feel most myself when I'm reading, but by that I don't mean that I'm most comfortable when I'm reading. I feel most fully a person who's torn betwe….

The events in America now have the quality of things you would find out about long after the fact, and think: if only we had known. Well, we do know ….

If you are made for flight, intended for it, you had better find a pursuer, fast. Otherwise, all that fleeing is going nowhere..