I would say that Times Square was the central hangout for Burroughs, Kerouac, and myself from about 1945 to 1948.

Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.

Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.

Black musicians were imitating speech cadences, and Kerouac was imitating the black musicians' breath cadences on their horns and brought it back to speech. It always was speech rhythms or cadences as far as the ear that Kerouac was developing. All passed through black music.

My Facebook fans have become my family in a lot of ways, so when that was taken away from me, it felt like a huge part of me was shut down.

My family never had a business background. We are artistes.

My mom was an opera singer, and she gave up her career to raise a family. But she also taught my sisters how to sing.

The audience and I are friends. They allowed me to grow up with them. I've let them down several times. They've let me down several times. But we're all family.