I was raised with a sense of democratic vistas and egalitarianism.

I think of my father born in this very small, limited situation and then coming out of that. Many people have this story.

Poets have to keep pushing, pushing, against the darkness, and write their way out of it as well.

I still had to correct Allen Ginsberg at times when he called women girls. I'd say. Allen please, it's not politically correct.

One has to be cautious and respectful of the power of the "substance" guides. I don't advocate imbibing the "little saint children," as Maria Sabina calls the magic mushrooms, or anything else for everyone. I find that certain substances reconnect me to a primal context of purpose that goes beyond identity and ownership. The writing-when I've worked it this way-is the kind of information you take back from dreams. Or it's hypnotic writing rather than getting off on some sort of pleasure trip or intellectual trip.

I'm curious about other universes, and nonhuman elementals. For me it's still a very lively ethos. It's a kind of practice. It's an ethos that is very sustaining.

If I smashed the traditions it was because I knew no traditions. I'm the girl with the unquenchable thirst.