I reserve the right to tell shaggy dog stories or even common jokes as part of what I’m doing. I don’t give a damn if half the audience walks out.

Disney made a fortune out of inventing the businessman’s idea of the imaginary as the contradictory of the businessman’s idea of the real.

While I’ve had a great distaste for what’s usually called song in modern poetry or for what’s usually called music, I really don’t think of speech as so far from song.

My way of thinking is very particular and concrete. It doesn’t follow a continuous path.

It’s hard being a hostage in somebody else’s mouth – or a character in somebody else’s novel.

I’m not sure what theory is, unless it’s the pursuit of fundamental questions.

I’m standing up thinking. Anybody who wants to listen is welcome. If not, I’m happy to see them go.

I hardly remember how I started to write poetry. It’s hard to imagine what I thought poetry could do.

While I don’t script and I don’t use other performers, I think my taste for underlying precision gives me something in common with Allan and George Brecht.

I’m aware of my audience in a way, and I do try to engage with them while I’m trying to go about my business of thinking. I believe they help me by providing a focus.