I Don't Think The Creative Writing Industry

Philip Larkin Has A Tough Honesty And Sense Of Humor That I Find Irresistible, As A Contemporary Poet.

Among The American Contemporaries I Read With Most Enjoyment Are Several North Carolinians. I Think The Best Poetry Being Written These Days Is Being Written By Southerners.

I Did Not Have A Very Literary Background. I Came To Poetry From The Sciences And Mathematics, And Also Through An Interest In Japanese And Chinese Poetry In Translation.

I Write As A Way Of Keeping Myself Going. You Build Your Life Around Writing, And It's What Gets You Through. So It's Partly Just Curiosity To See What You Can Do.

In The Late 60s And Early 70s, I Did Get Interested In Voices, And In Narration And Embodying The Voice, Making The Poem Sound Like A Real Person Talking.