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

I'm aware of my audience in a way, and I do try to engage with them while I'm trying to go about my business of thinking. I believe they help me by providing a focus.

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

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 tended to emphasize the secular, the casual, the colloquial, the vernacular against the sacred.

You pay your money, you take your choice. I get the audience my language attracts and I lose the ones it repels.