«When you're in a country like that - the architecture, everything is infused with the importance of religion. The art itself is just incredible. The architecture, the painting, the sculpture.»

«It's a magical thing that drops out of the sky into your lap, ... The Hammered Dulcimer.»

«You don't hear about this until you're a finalist. They ask if you can go to Rome for a year, because not everyone can do that.»

«I worked as hard as I could. I'm not fluent but I felt like I made real headway. The language is beautiful.»

«I saw the Pantheon and St. Peter's Basilica when people were not there, when you can engage with art.»

«The first six months, I was visiting and writing poems about them. That was a big surprise. ... I'm not a conventionally religious person.»

«[She also made enduring friendships with some of the other Rome Prize winners, and has ongoing collaborative projects with a few of them. Williams wrote a series of poems about the paintings of a painter-winner; one of them might be included with a December exhibit of those paintings. A composer-winner set two of her poems to music, for soprano and a small chamber ensemble, and these were performed at the Yale Summer Festival of Music.] We're trying to work on a larger collaborative project, ... His interpretation of the poems was so uncannily perfect to me. I was bracing myself - maybe it'll be good, maybe it'll be bad - and it was amazing. It was much better than I expected.»

«I enjoyed everything slowing down. It is a more intensified existence. ... Of course, I wasn't working, so I was able to indulge in a more intensified existence. It was la bella vita.»

«I'm sorry. I hope they find your son.»

«I said, 'Oh lord,'»