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.

Think of the road as a kind of zone and a site of incredible diversity.

The sense of traveling this continent, also other continents. The friendship.I would say a non-competitive friendship. That is so amazing to me.

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

There is a pretty interesting document called 'action writing.' Which is not all about spontaneity and first thought, best thought,' but a certain kind of attention to the smallest increments of the phonemes of language, The kind of power of connection, what he is able to do with language.

As a younger person you can come in through many, many gateways. It's like some huge Mandela. You can enter into this and get refreshed.

The music is notated first, the text follows. I might have to wait until the right kind of text or form arises. I often see the poems as “scores.”