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 I hardly remember how I started to write poetry. It's hard to imagine what I thought poetry could do. David Antin imagine writing remember I didn't think about whether I was writing poems. I was thinking. And the more I was thinking, the more there was I didn't understand. David Antin writing-poems writing thinking I tended to emphasize the secular, the casual, the colloquial, the vernacular against the sacred. David Antin casual secular sacred I learned enough Hebrew to stagger through a meaningless ceremony that I scarcely remember. David Antin hebrew enough remember I'm not sure what theory is, unless it's the pursuit of fundamental questions. David Antin pursuit theory fundamentals I'm standing up thinking. Anybody who wants to listen is welcome. If not, I'm happy to see them go. David Antin welcome want thinking For several centuries what has passed for song in literary circles was any text that looked like the lyrics for a commonplace melodic setting. David Antin corny circles song My rejection of the idea of entertainment in its current form is based on the audience that comes with it. David Antin rejection entertainment ideas While I've had a great distaste for what's usually called song in modern poetry or for what's usually called music, I really don't think of speech as so far from song. David Antin speech song thinking I was trying to find out what it was that everybody else understood without giving up my stubborn and hard-won lack of understanding. David Antin giving-up understanding trying When my mother left her second husband, she wrote her autobiography and presented it to him for his approval. David Antin appreciate husband mother The ancient Greek "oral poets" all had this anxiety about the deficiencies of their memories and always began poems by praying to the muse to help them remember. David Antin anxiety greek memories I am quite unsatisfied by the distinctions between the oral and literate. David Antin unsatisfied distinction An art machine is a system David Antin machines way art It's hard being a hostage in somebody else's mouth - or a character in somebody else's novel. David Antin novel mouths character When I got to the reading all the work, I was reduced to being an actor in an experimental play that I'd already written. And I didn't want to be an actor. David Antin reading want play work There is probably no oral society that fails to mark the spatial distinction of left and right, peculiar as this distinction may be. David Antin right left society may
