When asked what I'd be if I weren't a writer, I'm tempted to respond with one of father's favorite phrases, one I despised while growing up: "I hate 'what-ifs.'" — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
The fiction writer has a lot of balls to juggle. Setting, pacing, dialogue, and so on. And let's not forget: plot. That was always… — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
One cannot have "success" in poetry. If I wanted to be successful, I'd have become a lawyer. — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
One of the reasons poetry is such an amazing genre to work with is because it constantly reinvents itself and re-negotiates its terms with… — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
I have no precise idea of who makes up my readership. I'm surprised when I discover people have read my poems at all. — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
Confessional poetry is, to my mind, more slippery than poems that are sloppily autobiographical; I find the confessional mode much more akin to dramatic… — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
I do believe that one's writing life needs to be kept separate from Po-Biz. Personally, I deal with this by not attending too many… — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
I place a lot of emphasis on process and revision because I believe that all of my students can become better writers through hard… — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
I consider poetry my vocation, not my "career." My career is as a university professor; that's what pays the bills. — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
I like it when poems are challenging, when they concern matters important and personal to the author. — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
I find the elitism and blatant provincialism of many (Manhattan-based) New Yorkers unattractive. Just as place can be an identity crutch that helps a… — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
I am like a table that eats its own legs off because it’s fallen in love with the floor. — Cate Marvin Copy Share Image
