I learned to write with my desk in the living room, next to the TV. But mostly in my head, and I try to be able to do it under any circumstances.

- Shane Mccrae

I like having a phrase lying around to get poems started. It's like having a key.

- Shane Mccrae

I think that the casual reader and the lyric and confession are trickily tied up together. I mean often when I read my students' poems my first impul…

- Shane Mccrae

That's a fairly Wordsworthian way to look at things! But yeah, actually - part of the poet's work, I think, is to maintain or reintroduce the imagina…

- Shane Mccrae

People get anxious about dividing sorts of poetry, say Confessionalism from political poetry. But Confessionalism is very much an expression of racia…

- Shane Mccrae

Confessionalism relates to writers of color. I think confessional poetry is in its way very Catholic, capital C. One of the formative ideas of Confes…

- Shane Mccrae

I believe rhythmic sensibility is always a product and extension of language, defined broadly, among other things. But it is an immediate product and…

- Shane Mccrae

I do try to incorporate particular rhythmic and generally sonic motifs I discover in music as such, and if one thinks of language in a narrow sense, …

- Shane Mccrae

I just can't write and listen to music at the same time.

- Shane Mccrae