The future of publishing lies with the small and medium-sized presses, because the big publishers in New York are all part of huge conglomerates.

I certainly was surprised to be named Poet Laureate of this far-out city on the left side of the world, and I gratefully accept, for as I told the Mayor, "How could I refuse?" I'd rather be Poet Laureate of San Francisco than anywhere because this city has always been a poetic center, a frontier for free poetic life, with perhaps more poets and more poetry readers than any city in the world.

I'm reading a book about Romaine Brooks, a wonderful painter from early in the last century.

I'd ban all automobiles from the central part of the city. You see, the automobile was just a passing fad. It's got to go. It's got to go a long way from here.

I am waiting for the lost music to sound again in a new rebirth of wonder.

Freedom of speech is always under attack by Fascist mentality, which exists in all parts of the world, unfortunately.

If you would be a poet, write living newspapers. Be a reporter from outer space, filing dispatches to some supreme managing editor who believes in full disclosure and has a low tolerance for bullshit.