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.

When you're young, everything seems like a romance. At 96, I can still feel romantic about publishing young unknown writers.

We have seen the best minds of our generation destroyed by boredom at poetry readings.

Southern California, where the American Dream came too true.

My country tears of thee.

I didn’t know that painters and writers retired. They’re like soldiers – they just fade away.

When I was a boy I was my father.