SOURCE: "A Conversation with Philip Levine," in Tri-Quarterly, Winter, 1995-96, pp. 67-82.

In the following interview, Levine answers questions from students at Davidson College regarding his method and style of writing, the political relevance of poetry, and his most recent collection, The Simple Truth.

[Chris Wyrick] Congratulations on the big prize! [The Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for The Simple Truth (1994)]

[Philip Levine] Well, thank you. Yes. It's been a long time coming. But, you see, patience does pay off. Actually, I think it's better to get it when you're old. Ah, I'm happy to win it.

[George Weld] / think now especially a lot of young writers feel a tension between the feeling that they need to be activists in their work for social change and a feeling that, as Auden says, "Poetry makes nothing happen, " that poetry is irrelevant or elitist, and I'm wondering whether you feel this...