I reserve the right to tell shaggy dog stories or even common jokes as part of what I'm doing. I don't give a damn if half the audience walks out.

I've always had a strong feeling for the Statue of Liberty, because it became the statue of my personal liberty.

I'm not sure what theory is, unless it's the pursuit of fundamental questions.

I am quite unsatisfied by the distinctions between the oral and literate.

I hardly remember how I started to write poetry. It's hard to imagine what I thought poetry could do.

For several centuries what has passed for song in literary circles was any text that looked like the lyrics for a commonplace melodic setting.

Children frequently sing meaningful phrases to themselves over and over again before they learn to make a distinction between singing and saying.