“A lot of my poems either have historical sequences or other kinds of chronological grids where I'm locating myself in time. I like to feel oriented, and I like to orient the reader at the beginning of a poem.”

“I'm not a claustrophobe, but you don't need to be to feel claustrophobic inside an MRI. It's like being buried alive.”

“Japan Today I pass the time reading a favorite haiku, saying the few words over and over. It feels like eating the same small, perfect grape again and again. I walk through the house reciting it and leave its letters falling through the air of every room. I stand by the big silence of the piano and...”

“I'm easily frightened, and I've also come to realize that old Catholic guilt or remorse is easily stimulated.”