There are hundreds of prisons - sexual, political, cultural. But being a prisoner also gives you impetus.
Gerald SternI feel that my job, as an artist, is to disturb the peace. And to disturb it intellectually, linguistically, politically and literally.
Gerald SternMaybe being an artist is a kind of detachment. You're in the cave, you're isolated, you're apart from everything and it's there you can find out what you believe in, or what is - what is the nature of being, as you see it.
Gerald SternI floundered in my twenties. Though I wore a long scarf. And when I got to be thirty I got a job at Temple University in Philadelphia. I worked there for seven years, and I finally got fired, mostly for political reasons.
Gerald Stern