I am imprinted with the whole sense of European history, especially German history, going back to World War I, which really destroyed all the old val…

- Lisel Mueller

Memory and poetry go together, absolutely. It is a matter of preserving and of remembering things.

- Lisel Mueller

When I am asked how I began writing poems, I talk about the indifference of nature.

- Lisel Mueller

When I was in college, I did do some writing of poetry, somewhat inspired, I think at that time, by Carl Sandburg, because English was still relative…

- Lisel Mueller

What luxury, to be so happy that we can grieve over imaginary lives.

- Lisel Mueller

Poetry, for me, is the answer to, 'How does one stay sane when private lives are being ransacked by public events?' It's something that hangs over yo…

- Lisel Mueller

Everything is autobiography, even if one writes something that is totally objective. The fact that it's a subject that seizes you makes it autobiogra…

- Lisel Mueller

I want to celebrate these elms which have been spared by the plague, these survivors of a once flourishing tribe commemorated by all the Elm Streets …

- Lisel Mueller

Well, language seems to be something that obsesses me. I'm always writing about it.

- Lisel Mueller