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I was appointed Poet Laureate. It came totally out of the blue because most Poet Laureates had been considerably older than I. It was not something that I even had begun to dream about!

People write me from all over the country, asking me, and sometimes even telling me, what they think a poet laureate should do. I found that immensely valuable.

When I became poet laureate, I was in a slightly uncomfortable position because I think a lot of poetry isn't worth reading.

It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.

Pretty much the day I stopped being laureate, the poems that had been few and far between came back to me, like birds in the evening nesting in a tree.

As poet laureate, I was asked to be a spokesman for literature.

It is a tremendous honor to be named poet laureate, but one that I find humbling as well, because it's the kind of thing that makes me feel like - even as it's been bestowed upon me - I must continue to live up to what it means... Being the younger laureate in the age of social media is a new challenge.

At college, I wanted to be a poet. I liked the extremely concentrated language, the atmosphere of otherworldliness.

I earn more than I thought I would when I became a poet.

I gave my voice to poetry.