"Complexity excites the mind, and order rewards it. In the garden, one finds both, including vanishingly small orders too complex to spot, and orders so vast the mind struggles to embrace them."

"Nature is more like a seesaw than a crystal, a never-ending conga line of bold moves and corrections."

"When a hurricane thrashes the mid-Atlantic, my hilly town often reaps the fringe of the storm. The rain starts blowing sideways, and sometimes we see hail the size of purie marbles."

"A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at metaphorically."

"I enjoy writing but I much prefer the experience of having written."

"My friends say, 'Man you're going to have kids sleeping on pillowcases with your face on it! You're going to be on toothbrushes and magnets and stuff.' I guess now that I'm a dad, I'm thrilled about that."

"In my experience lust only ever leads to misery. All that suspicion and jealousy and anguish it unleashes. I don't want those things in my life."

"Isolation is a big part of songwriting."