“I've been fascinated over the years by the way refrains work. Think, s...” — Edward Hirsch Quote

“I've been fascinated over the years by the way refrains work. Think, say, of the refrains in Yeats' ballads. Ideally, each time the refrain comes back in a poem, it is both the same and different. It works by counterpoint and reiteration. It accrues meaning.”

“I don't think poetry will die, but I think that poetry does demand a certain kind of attention to language. It does demand a certain space in order to read it, and I think that space is somewhat threatened by the lack of attention that people have and the amount of time that they give to things.”

“My soul is to write ballads - that's what pours out of me, dude.”

“Even on the most serious ballads, I'll throw in a tongue-in-cheek remark.”

“At 15, my voice just dropped. I was singing men's ballads, Tony Bennett, Billy Eckstein.”