“I'm the same age as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth.” Quote by Christopher Paul Curtis
“My father was a frustrated writer. I think he wanted to write the great American novel.” ThinkingWritingWantedFatherNovelFrustratedGreat American Author:Anne Waldman
“I think of my father born in this very small, limited situation and then coming out of that. Many people have this story.” PeopleThinkingStoriesFatherBornSituationComing Out Author:Anne Waldman
“I had a student some years ago whose father had worked on the Manhattan Project. I had a student who had to escape this very intense, born-again fundamentalist Christian background that was very much like a cult and of course they struggle to get to Naropa. And they have cut themselves off. They don't look back.” YearsLooksChristianCoursesFatherBornStruggleCuttingStudentsProjectsYears AgoBackgroundsIntenseCultManhattanBorn AgainFundamentalistManhattan Project Author:Anne Waldman
“I have students whose fathers are voting for Sarah Palin. It's wild.” FatherStudentsVotingPalin Author:Anne Waldman
“The whole red state/blue state thing is very interesting. Watching that shift over the years.” YearsStatesWholeInterestingRedBlueVery Interesting Author:Anne Waldman
“The dichotomies, the brokenness of the culture around things like the Vietnam war, and then a lot of it has to do with war and where we put our energy and money and attention. And the military industrial complex, which dominates our whole economy. Even with the vision of democracy in other places we know the dark side.” KnowsWarWholeCultureEnergySidesDarkAttentionVisionEconomyDemocracyMilitaryComplexesVietnamVietnam WarDark SideBrokennessDichotomyMilitary Industrial Complex Author:Anne Waldman
“I did go to Vietnam in 2000 as a kind of pilgrimage and to feel my generation was very much a part of this. I felt responsible but also connected and empathetic. It was a very complicated relationship we had, whichever side you were on. The shock of being there was very few people my own age - I was primarily in the North in the streets of Hanoi. A whole generation was essentially decimated.” PeopleFeelsKindWholeAgeFeltSidesMy OwnGenerationsStreetsResponsibleComplicatedConnectedShockVietnamBeing ThereMy GenerationPilgrimageEmpatheticComplicated RelationshipHanoi Author:Anne Waldman
“We had much more imagery from Vietnam war. The media was not controlled. The storyline, the master narrative was not controlled. I thin it was some those images really radicalized people and shifted things to some extent. And the Viet Cong also, their tenacity.” PeopleWarMediaMastersNarrativeControlledVietnamImageryVietnam WarTenacityStorylineViet Cong Author:Anne Waldman
“Growing up in the fifties, having to wear a dog tag, having to take shelter in a bomb shelter. That turned me toward the road, I did not want to live in fear of that, I was gong to work somehow against what that vision was, and what that horror was. It was poetry, art, music.” WantArtVisionGrowing UpGrowingDogHorrorBombsShelterTagArt MusicGongsBomb Shelters Author:Anne Waldman