My two great heroes are W. B. Yeats and Federico García Lorca.

The older I get, the surer I am that I'm not running the show.

I am an old scholar, better-looking now than when I was young. That's what sitting on your ass does to your face.

I was 15 when I first became deeply touched by the rhythm and structure of words.

I never had the sense that there was an end: that there was a retirement or that there was a jackpot.