Ellen Bass

So much inspires me. People living their lives with courage, beauty of all kinds, nature in all its aspects, people I love and people I hardly know, and, of course, other poets.

I wanted to be a writer since I was in high school, but I never thought it was possible.

I live in Santa Cruz. I moved here in 1974 and couldn't leave.

The thing about great poetry is we have no defenses against it.

Realistically speaking, I don't know how many more years I will want to be acting or will be invited to be.

This is the most intimate relationship between literature and its readers: they treat the text as a part of themselves, as a possession.