When I was in Marine training I memorised 'The Waste Land,' which was a significant experience in terms of really breaking apart language and thinking about how the different voices in that poem function.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Translated poetry filled the no-man's-land between my own work and other writers', and I found this fascinating to explore.
At Juilliard, suddenly I was reading these great plays that could articulate the ways I was feeling in the Marine Corps, and that felt very therapeutic, by putting words to feelings, in a big way.
Poetry taught me a great deal about language and images, but when it came to plotting, I was stumped. It's been very much a learn-by-doing thing for me.
The Vietnam War and the Iraq war, in different ways, both made me feel like I could not not address them. I'm very doubtful about the usefulness of poetry to do that.
I've always loved the poetry in 'Pale Fire.' I think it's wonderful.
Writing poetry, which for me was then saying how I felt about this and that, didn't help me to understand the world I lived in.
I think poetry was always where I went to deal with my deepest feelings.
Poetry comes alive to me through recitation.
I come here to speak poetry. It will always be in the grass. It will also be necessary to bend down to hear it. It will always be too simple to be discussed in assemblies.
As a child, what captivated me was reading the poems myself and realizing that there was a world without material substance which was nevertheless as alive as any other.