Q. What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?
A. Walking. Which is almost the same as writing: you look busy.
Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
A. Poor grammar.
Q. Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?
A. Love language. Take in the world with your heart open. Break rules. Don't limit yourself to one sentence if you must say more.
Q. Is there a book you love to reread?
A. Yes. Poetry: Galway Kinnell, Gerald Stern, WS Merwin, Robert Hass, Zbigniew Herbert, Joseph Brodsky, Derek Walcott, Larry Levis. Rumi. Poetry is magic: the right poem always finds you. The same goes for much of Jorge Luis Borges's writing, I think.