"It is only when I am doing my work that I feel truly alive."

"Censorship is advertising paid by the government."

"All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography."

"Fate is written in the face."

"Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket you put your life into it and make something out of that."

"Artistic qualities that once seemed undeniable don't seem so now. Sometimes these fluctuations are only fickleness of taste, momentary glitches in an artist's work, or an artist getting ahead of his audience (it took me ten years to catch up to Albert Oehlen). Other times, however, these problems mean there's something wrong with the art."

"I'm preparing for a multimedia theater piece, Airport Music, that's coming up in New York City."

"The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it."