In The Best Fiction, The Language Itself

Some People Want To Call Me An Appalachian Writer, Even Though I Know Some People Use Regional Labels To Belittle.

The Fact That Something Is In A Rhymed Form Or In Blank Verse Will Not Make It Good Poetry.

If People Associate Me With A Region, That's Fine With Me.

The Best Books Of Our Times Have Included The Three Mature Volumes Of Philip Larkin. They're Very Short Books Of Poems, And Very Carefully Arranged.

It Was Less A Literary Thing Than A Linguistic, Philosophical Preoccupation... Discovering How Far You Can Go With Language To Create Immediate, Elementary Experience.