I think there's an appetite for seriousness. Seriousness is voluptuous, and very few people have allowed themselves the luxury of it.

It's four in the morning, the end of december I'm writing you now just to see if you're better.

Even without the mushroom cloud still I would have hated Listen I would have done the same things even if there were no death I will not be held like a drunkard under the cold tap of facts I refuse the universal alibi

I alwaysthought of myself as a competent, minor poet. I know who I'm up against.

...a young nurse is standing close behind me wondering whether she is being drawn by my power or her charity.

As soon as anybody does one of my songs, I rejoice. This particular case of all these great singers doing my work - the implications are very rich and the temptation to think of the outcome of these masses of the mainstream injecting my work into the marketplace, it's a very sweet speculation.

Everybody knows the dice are loaded.