Nothing is a hobby – each discipline is its own world with its own high standards. Of course, every artist has ‘minor works’ that they do, but I don’t think I have any ‘minor disciplines.’
Art is by nature optimistic. Art is optimistic because it is alive.
My father came a couple of times, but he always blamed his hearing loss on my loud amplifiers. So he didn’t come anymore, but I had his support.
New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie. New York City has been taken away from you. So my advice is: Find a new city.
Even as a child, I knew what I didn’t want. I didn’t want to wear red lipstick.
I came into music because I thought the presentation of poetry wasn’t vibrant enough. So I merged improvised poetry with basic rock chords.
I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf.
Why can’t I write something that would awake the dead? That pursuit is what burns most deeply.
Good news doesn’t necessarily have to be a positive thing. Bringing good news is imparting hope to one’s fellow man.
The only way I can lose my mind in bed is to destroy myself in a fantasy.
I learned from him that often contradiction is the clearest way to truth.
I was a lower middle-class kid. My family had no money. There was no room in our small house where there were already four kids, including myself, living.
An artist may have burdens the ordinary citizen doesn’t know, but the ordinary citizen has burdens that many artists never even touch.
I don’t know about that. I’m not a very analytical person. I have various impulses. I’ve often quoted Walt Whitman’s phrase “I contain multitudes.” I understand that.
I love my little overgrown yard. And my house is wonderful. It’s everything that I need.
I could have a job as a teacher because I like talking in front of people.
I started thinking what could happen with my art and I realized that the biggest thing that could is that it winds up in a museum. It’s like finding a rare animal and putting it in the zoo.
I started resenting how much art robs from life. I’d go to a party and I couldn’t enjoy myself, even sexually. All I could think was how I was going to reinvent the experience into a piece of art.
I think it’s important for people to realize that we were all young, all naive, and also we had lived in a time that had magic.
I know from an early age that I’m very comfortable in front of people. When I was a young girl, I’d love giving book reports.