“A lot of things appearing under my byline were written in one draft. But when I started to write poetry, I started getting fussy about every syllable. I wouldn't allow the work to be seen unless it felt perfect. Not clunky at all, no clunky syllables. So, really, for the printed page, it had to have a feeling of rhythmic and syntactic verisimilitude or something.” WritingFeelingsFeltPerfectWrittenPagesPrintedAppearingSyllablesFussy Author:Richard Meltzer
“I didn't mind writing incoherently, up until about 1980, occasionally. But after that, I decided, might as well be articulate. And I found, though, that writing poetry affected my prose to the point where I never again wrote in one draft, and my prose just took longer and longer and longer. It took longer and longer to come up with an acceptable text. And that's probably one of the reasons that my output has slowed down.” WritingMindWellsReasonMightFoundDecidedCome UpProseAffectedAcceptableOutputWriting Poetry Author:Richard Meltzer
“I mean, what's thematic? How to put it? Going back to, like, 1980, when I started writing poetry. Language itself became an issue. I'd even think about font as an aspect of text, you know, how something looks on a page. A lot of this is the product of a very solitary existence, it's like, language, I mean, you know. A lot of time spent alone in the creation of all of this stuff.” ThinkingKnowsWritingLooksMeanLanguageStuffExistenceKnow HowIssuesCreationProductsPagesAspectSolitaryWriting PoetryTime SpentFontsThematic Author:Richard Meltzer
“The first five years as a writer, I didn't know how to write at all. I couldn't write my way out of a white paper bag. And yet, I did some remarkable things. And later on, there were periods where I got this mission to find an articulate voice with rewrites and all. There were periods where I was as dense as Faulkner.” KnowsWayWritingYearsFirstsVoiceWhiteKnow HowFivePeriodsPaperMissionsMy WayFive YearsBagsRemarkableDensePaper BagsWhite Paper 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
“One of the things about me is that I actually had marginally middle-class living from writing. For years and years, I actually wrote so much through the '70s and '80s that I made a living. And very rarely have I had to take another job. And now it's impossible for anybody coming up to make such a living. They've pissed in the temple, you know?” KnowsWritingYearsMadeJobsClassImpossibleMiddleTemplesMiddle Class80s Author:Richard Meltzer
