We had much more imagery from Vietnam war. The media was not controlled. The storyline, the master narrative was not controlled. I thin it was some those images really radicalized people and shifted things to some extent. And the Viet Cong also, their tenacity.

The sense of the preciousness of the body - vehicle for poetry.

For me the road became a zone, in places like Saint Marks poetry Project where I worked for 12 years.

Idea that all the beats are wildly liberal and progressive is ridiculous. You have people thinking for themselves and having certain affinities because of their upbringing and who their family are, their own people who were close to them who fought in these wars and so on. It's complicated. But they had that ability to continue the conversation.

As a woman I have felt encouraged and fed by and nurtured by the work of [Jack] Kerouac and others.

I think of the amazing things that were going on. So it's so rich. The doors keep opening.

I think Visions of Cody is the most radical book in terms of poetic stretch and the way Jack Kerouac is able to incorporate documentation and incorporate the live tape recording of Neal and so on.