“But really, it was reading that led me to writing. And in particular, reading the American classics like Twain who taught me at an early age that ordinary lives of ordinary people can be made into high art.”
“Perhaps first and foremost is the challenge of taking what I find as a reader and making it into a poem that, primarily, has to be a plausible poem in English.”
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Athlete (1947) |
| Edie Adams, Musician (1927) |
| Herbert Baxter Adams, Educator (1850) |
| Akon, Musician (1973) |
| Tom Allen, Politician (1945) |
| Ellen Barkin, Actress (1955) |
| Gina Carano, Actress (1982) |
| Peter Garrett, Musician (1953) |
| Lukas Haas, Actor (1976) |
| Lord Halifax, Politician (1881) |
| Fred Davis, Celebrity (1998) |
| Ralph Ellison, Author (1994) |
| Edna Ferber, Novelist (1968) |
| Yasunari Kawabata, Novelist (1972) |
| David Lean, Director (1991) |