If You Want To Know

Certainly, It Seems True Enough That There's A Good Deal Of Irony In The World... I Mean, If You Live In A World Full Of Politicians And Advertising, There's Obviously A Lot Of Deception.

I've Had Trouble With Criticism, I Guess. It's Hard To Know What Role Criticism Plays In Either Encouraging Poets Or In Getting Other People To Read Them.

I Was Born In Cincinnati, Ohio. My Family Was Not Nationally Known As Being A Literary Family, Though My Mother And My Mother's Side Of The Family In General Were Interested In Literature.

I Never Thought Of Myself As A New York Poet Or As An American Poet.

As I Look Over My Work, I Mean Every Time I Look Over My Early Work, I See, Yes, I Could Do That Then And Then I Could Do That And That... That May Be The Hardest Thing For A Writer, At Least For A Poet, To Tell What The Identity Of His Work Is.