"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 don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predicted that."

"Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form."

"Winners have the ability to step back from the canvas of their lives like an artist gaining perspective. They make their lives a work of art - an individual masterpiece."

"The art of living is discovering that the heart sees what is invisible to the eye."

"Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder."

"A humble soul understands that the silence between the notes creates the music."