If you imagine, friend, that I do not have those black…

Poetry is the art of saying what you mean but disguising it.

— Diane Wakoski

Learning to live what you're born with is the process, the involvement, the making of a life.

— Diane Wakoski

“Uneasy Rider" Falling in love with a mustache is like saying you can fall in love with the way a man polishes his shoes…

— Diane Wakoski

From reading a previous answer, you know that I consider all those aspects to be part of American cultural myth and thus they figure…

— Diane Wakoski

American poetry is always about defining oneself individually,claiming one's right to be different and often to break taboos.

— Diane Wakoski

Distinctly American poetry is usually written in the context of one's geographic landscape, sometimes out of one's cultural myths, and often with reference to…

— Diane Wakoski

American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet.

— Diane Wakoski

I think that's what poetry does. It allows people to come together and identify with a common thing that is outside of themselves, but…

— Diane Wakoski

I definitely wish to distinguish American poetry from British or other English language poetry.

— Diane Wakoski

So, I've never been politically correct, even before that term was available to us, and I have really identified with other people who don't…

— Diane Wakoski

What line breaks add to prose prosody is a connection between eye and ear which emphasizes the nature of the language by ... creating…

— Diane Wakoski

I am not political as a person.

— Diane Wakoski

There are rituals not structures for being a poet, drinking too much, taking too many drugs, being a lady chaser, having your nervous breakdown,…

— Diane Wakoski

I write in the first person because I have always wanted to make my life more interesting than it was.

— Diane Wakoski

Because, in fact, women, feminists, do read my poetry, and they read it often with the power of their political interpretation. I don't care;…

— Diane Wakoski