The one thing that summarizes his style is that he just manages to get a piece of his equipment on the puck. He could be down and out or flopping around and he ends up getting something on the puck.

The play has taken on a greater height of spirituality. He didn't make it. That was a painful thing, but it feels absolutely right that we are here. His family is here. His people are here.

The poem builds in my mind and sits there, as if in a register, until the poem, or a piece of a longer poem, is finished enough to write down. I can hold several lines in my head for quite some time, but as soon as they are written down, the register clears, as it were, and I have to work with what is on the paper.

The poet has no greater number of muscles than the ordinary conversationalist; he merely has more highly developed muscles and better coordination. And he practises his activity according to a stricter set of rules.

The point about it is that if you're pointed toward some kind of goodness, some kind of light, something positive, you find your way through these trials and tribulations, ... I've basically dedicated my whole lyrical life to people's ability to cope with the struggle because I do believe there is a struggle. And I don't mean it in a negative sense. I just mean it in a realistic sense. Nothing is greater than staying right on the positive, but sometimes life can have a way of just pulling you back and dragging you a bit.