I think every poet, or any artist, has a sense of the Muse. It’s unpredictable; no matter how much personal discipline you have, you can’t just sit down and write a poem when you want to. You have to wait for the images and the ideas to be presented and then be alert enough to catch them when they come, and record them….And you have to pay attention; you can’t just say, “Later, later.” You really have to pay attention at that moment. Because it’s so central—there’s a sense that this is what my life is really all about and the other things become more peripheral.

Lucy Shaw. Interview in Mars Hill Review. May 1995.