"I think all loss has an echo and an endlessness."

"I think as a society, we're always trying to be useful, to be helpful, but so often, our loved ones — in whatever ways they are suffering — just want to know they're not alone. True presence is courageous."

"The relationships between animals can seem quite savage when viewed up close. They become even more savage when a child is also watching and asks why."

"The tricky part of writing, for me, is discovering a proactive balance of solitude and community and finding time to write while working to sustain my dream life."

"I do believe in the power of the image, and I think an immense amount of blossoming can occur between two images."

"If you only read one writer, you’ll write things that sound like that writer. If you read a variety of writers you’ll produce work that’s both more idiosyncratic and more interesting."

"I have learned to talk about it in terms of syllabics and measures, but really I’m that kid, engrossed, lost in words for hours."

"For me, good poems are written from the true self, through the self."