“Look at Allen Ginsberg. In poems like 'Kaddish' and 'Howl,' you can hear a cantor between the lines. It's fully alive, and I think that's what's missing in modern poetry. It's too dry and cerebral.”

“The poet complains or points out the discontent that lies at the heart of man, the individual man, and how can that be redeemed?”

“Musical composition, about which I know little, is a complicated art, and some contemporary music may be the equivalent of a complex abstract painting.”

“Sometimes what we call tragedy, at least in the theater, are really case histories. They're based on the central figure, and things happen to that person, and they're called tragedy because they're extremely sad. But tragedy always has a glorious thing happen at the end of it. That's what the cathar...”