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…

- Richard Meltzer

Those which might have some depth are corny enough to be hokey, and almost hokey enough to be folky, since folky is already so hokey anyhow.

- Richard Meltzer

Basically, when I hear it now, I don't recognize myself directly in a lot of cases. I was expecting more menace. And the fact that it didn't seem men…

- 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…

- 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, t…

- Richard Meltzer

When you make it to eighty-four, then you're ready to sit back and think universal and systematic. I was a philosophy major a long, long time ago. At…

- 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 goi…

- 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…

- 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 t…

- Richard Meltzer