David Antin

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. ”

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. ”

I am quite unsatisfied by the distinctions between the oral and literate. ”

There is probably no oral society that fails to mark the spatial distinction of left and right, peculiar as this distinction may be. ”

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. ”

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. ”

I'm standing up thinking. Anybody who wants to listen is welcome. If not, I'm happy to see them go. ”

My way of thinking is very particular and concrete. It doesn't follow a continuous path. ”

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. ”

Children frequently sing meaningful phrases to themselves over and over again before they learn to make a distinction between singing and saying. ”