An interview with Diane Ackerman

Well, I write poetry and non-fiction. I write about nature and human nature. And most often about that twilight zone where the two meet and have something they can teach each other. I like that best. When I was writing A Slender Thread I was writing about the dark night of the soul -- and squirrels, but that was incidental. But when I was writing about squirrels and nature I was writing about the context in which human beings fit. Because we share instincts and emotions with the rest of the natural world. And part of the predicament that we find ourselves in -- existentially -- is this tragic attempt that we're making to separate ourselves from nature. To exile ourselves from nature. Which is biologically impossible. And yet we pretend that we can do it, as if nature didn't include us somehow.