I reserve the right to tell shaggy dog stories or even common jokes as part of what I'm doing. I don't give a damn if half the audience walks out. David Antin More Quotes by David Antin More Quotes From David Antin From this entertainment industry, may the gods of language protect us. David Antin entertainment language may The self is an oral society in which the present is constantly running a dialogue with the past and the future inside of one skin. David Antin self running past There are editing procedures for talks just as there are editing procedures in jazz improvisation. David Antin jazz-improvisation procedures editing I was very committed to the process of composing, working at poems, putting things together and taking them apart like some kind of experimental filmmaker. David Antin kind process together I've always had a strong feeling for the Statue of Liberty, because it became the statue of my personal liberty. David Antin liberty strong feelings When you grow up in a family of languages, you develop a kind of casual fluency, so that languages, though differently colored, all seem transparent to experience. David Antin fluency growing-up language The Sophists' paradoxical talk pieces and their public debates were entertainment in 5th century Greece. And in that world, Socrates was an entertainer. David Antin entertainment pieces world While I don't script and I don't use other performers, I think my taste for underlying precision gives me something in common with Allan and George Brecht. David Antin use giving thinking I'm aware of my audience in a way, and I do try to engage with them while I'm trying to go about my business of thinking. I believe they help me by providing a focus. David Antin focus believe thinking I wanted to be an inventor, whatever I thought that meant then. I guess I was thinking of Edison or maybe James Watt. Or maybe even Newton. David Antin james-watt newton thinking You pay your money, you take your choice. I get the audience my language attracts and I lose the ones it repels. David Antin language choices pay My mother turned into a professional widow. She couldnt understand why I wanted to be an engineer; she thought I should be a chicken farmer. David Antin widows chickens mother My way of thinking is very particular and concrete. It doesn't follow a continuous path. David Antin path way thinking Stories are different every time you tell them - they allow so many possible narratives. David Antin narrative different stories A myth is the name of a terrible lie told by a smelly little brown person to a man in a white suit with a pair of binoculars. David Antin white men lying Disney made a fortune out of inventing the businessman's idea of the imaginary as the contradictory of the businessman's idea of the real. David Antin real made ideas Children frequently sing meaningful phrases to themselves over and over again before they learn to make a distinction between singing and saying. David Antin sight meaningful children I can manage a prose format as long as I keep closer to Laurence Sterne than to Henry James. David Antin format prose long I had no idea where these kids at a small private college in the San Fernando Valley were coming from, why they were coming to hear me, or what they needed to know. David Antin college kids ideas I have spoken to expert audiences occasionally, but then no audience is expert over the whole range of things I want to explore. David Antin range experts want
