“My issues with it are that simply in terms of my own work. It represents 30 years of output. And some of the things, some of the pieces I've used there, when I first wrote them, they seemed probably very menacing, and I hear them now, and they're just kind of pleasant, if that's the word.” IfsYearsFirstsKindUsedTermMy OwnIssuesPiecesPleasantWorking ItOutput Author:Richard Meltzer
“If I'm very drunk, I can improvise. But generally speaking, no. Generally speaking, almost all of my work is material that was first done on the printed page. And the shorter ones that you might call poems, I had a stretch from '79, '80, for five or six years, where I wrote a lot of poetry as such. Simply because I was asked to.” IfsYearsFirstsI CanDoneMightFiveMaterialsSixPagesDrunkPrinted Author:Richard Meltzer
“If I looked at some of these pieces as if this project was not spoken-word but just short anthology, I probably would have fussed with some of the sentences, you know? Syllabication and prosody and such crap. Because the printed word is etched in stone. But for reading purposes I accepted this book of texts in the manner in which I wrote them, no need to fuss. Most of the shorter stuff was written as poetry. Meaning lots of white space on the page.” IfsKnowsNeedsBookPurposeReadingStuffSpaceWhitePiecesWrittenProjectsPagesStonesSentencesAcceptedCrapPrintedSpoken WordAnthologyPrinted WordWhite SpaceProsody Author:Richard Meltzer
“No matter what, I'm never going to get an anthology from an actual publisher, though I could always score another music anthology. But if this is going to be a document of a multiplicity of my writings, it'll do. It feels like a birthday party or something.” IfsFeelsWritingMatterPartyNo Matter WhatScoreDocumentsPublishersMultiplicityAnthologyBirthday Party Author:Richard Meltzer
“Basically, I've reached the point where I've lost any direct relationship to any of the editors I used to have. I suspect I'll have to pay to publish this myself, and I think a lot about about putting out fifty copies. I used to think about hogwash like my legacy and silly things like that. But I feel like if I never have another book out, I've done okay, I've had like twelve or thirteen little books, and I won't be upset about this on my death bed.” IfsThinkingFeelsLittlesBookDoneUsedLostPayBedDirectOkaySillyLegacyUpsetFiftySuspectsCopiesEditorsTwelvePublishThirteenSilly ThingsDeath BedHogwash Author:Richard Meltzer
“But the poetry side is what appeals more to me today. Metaphor, just absurd linkages and coming up with categories, labeling, taxonomy, and I'd say that I do have some tools left. There are days I can't make a sentence out of anything, and anything I make looks clunky to me. But I still have a general grasp of the cliché, of the generic sentence. And if I didn't have that, I'd be a blob of putty on the floor.” IfsLooksStillsI CanTodayLeftSidesToolsMetaphorSentencesAbsurdAppealsCategoriesGenericLabelingLinkagesTaxonomy Author:Richard Meltzer
