You Aren't Just The Age You Are.

I Wonder If I Ever Thought Of An Ideal Reader... I Guess When I Was In My 20s And In New York And Maybe Even In My Early 30s, I Would Write For My Wife Janice... Mainly For My Poet Friends And My Wife, Who Was Very Smart About Poetry.

Maybe There Are Three Or Four Really Good Poets In A Generation.

I Never Thought Of Myself As A New York Poet Or As An American Poet.

I Thought, 'there Are A Lot Of Poets Who Have The Courage To Look Into The Abyss, But There Are Very Few Who Have The Courage To Look Happiness In The Face And Write About It,' Which Is What I Wanted To Be Able To Do.

Politics Is There The Way Men And Women Are There, The Way The Atlantic Ocean Is There. Sometimes I've Written About Politics Specifically, I Mean About Politics As It's Understood On Television And In Newspapers.