Billy Collins did not formally study the writing of poetry. He says in several interviews—and only as a partial joke—that his “MFA” was the paper clip renowned poet and editor Miller Williams put around 17 poems Collins sent to Williams in the late 1980s. These were of the style Williams thought Collins should pursue, and Collins credits this as part of his major guidance as a young writer. Collins honestly confesses he was not part of the conventional poetry establishment and that he did not follow advice to be more serious in his poems. His poems often apply dry wit and dark humor which, as he told George Plimpton, function as “a door into the serious.”

Famous novelist John Updike said to Plimpton, “Billy Collins writes lovely poems […] limpid, gently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides.” Although Collins has his detractors, his dedication to this earthy voice, and his ability to relay common experience, explain why a poem like “Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep A Gun in the House” is popular. Collins put it in the interview with Plimpton as follows: