From 1968 On, I Was Pretty Much

Don't Go Chattering To The Stars If You're Going To Do It With Your Eyes Closed.

Ah, Well, During The Middle Ages, Religion Was Often Able To Redeem Art. Today, However, Art Is About The Only Thing That Can Redeem Religion, And The Clerics Will Never Forgive Us For That.

I Was A Kid Who Liked Art And Theater And Dance And Music, But If You Lived In Harlem, High Culture Was Somewhere Else, And It Wasn't Black.

Human Beings Being What They Are, Order Spreads, Given Half A Chance, Almost As Fast As Confusion.

You Know What I Do? I Listen To Other People, Stumbling About With Their Half Thoughts And Half Sentences And Their Clumsy Feelings That They Can't Express, And It Hurts Me. So I Go Home And Burnish It And Polish It And Weld It To A Rhythmic Frame, Make The Dull Colors Gleam, Mute The Garish Artificiality To Pastels, So It Doesn't Hurt Any More: That's My Poem. I Know What They Want To Say, And I Say It For Them.