I am very chary -- and weary of the poetry of men and women of letters who "dig" -- with a "Between my finger and my thumb / The squat pen rests; snug as a gun."I read poetry to forget that I am reading. I write poetry to forget that I am writing.- "What You Write Is Nobody's Business": An Interview With Wong May (The Believer, May 2014)

By changing our habitual way of reading poetry, we change our way of reading the world, and vice versa. - "What You Write Is Nobody's Business": An Interview With Wong May (The Believer, May 2014)

The poems are processional, station after station, a writing life. You write what's been handed out to you by life. You do not choose the itinerary.- "What You Write Is Nobody's Business": An Interview With Wong May (The Believer, May 2014)

My relationship with my mother has a great deal to do with my relationship with my mother tongue.My mother always held me in her mouth, like a fiercely maternal animal -- but just so that she won't, can't, swallow me entirely, nor let me go.- "What You Write Is Nobody's Business": An Interview With Wong May (The Believer, May 2014)