You Aren't Just The Age You Are.

I Wonder If I Ever Thought Of An Ideal Reader... I Guess When I Was In My 20s And In New York And Maybe Even In My Early 30s, I Would Write For My Wife Janice... Mainly For My Poet Friends And My Wife, Who Was Very Smart About Poetry.

You Aren't Just The Age You Are. You Are All The Ages You Ever Have Been!

I Love Painting And Music, Of Course. I Don't Know Nearly As Much About Them As I Know About Poetry. I've Certainly Been Influenced By Fiction. I Was Overwhelmed By War And Peace When I Read It, And I Didn't Read It Until I Was In My Late 20s.

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.