When I was younger, I felt it was my duty to wake people up. I thought poetry was asleep. I thought rock 'n' roll was asleep.

When you do controversial work, you're going to upset a certain amount of people.

If someone didn't want to be filmed, or my children said, "Don't film me anymore," [Steven Sebring] didn't try to sneak a shot or cajole them; he just respected their wishes.

I hadn't performed or been in the public eye for about 16 years. When my husband passed away, I was obliged to go back to work to take care of our kids. I also wanted to do a record in memory of him. So we did Gone Again. During that process, I had to be photographed and had to go back to doing articles and interviews.

In fact, I thought my calling was to be a painter.

Remember, we are mortal, but poetry is not.

I was raised in rural south Jersey, and there was no culture there. There was a small library, and that was it. There was nothing else.