I was always interested in French poetry sort of as a sideline to my own work I was translating contemporary French poets. That kind of spilled out into translation as a way to earn money pay for food and put bread on the table.

I guess I wanted to leave America for awhile. It wasn't that I wanted to become an expatriate or just never come back I needed some breathing room. I'd already been translating French poetry I'd been to Paris once before and liked it very much and so I just went.

Is there any purpose to translating poetry? A poem does not contain information of importance like a signpost or a warning notice.

In every society in human history including the United States those in power seek to imbue themselves with the attributes of religion and patriotism as a way of getting greater support for their policy and insulating themselves from any criticism.

Soon I knew the craft of experimental physics was beyond me - it was the sublime quality of patience - patience in accumulating data patience with recalcitrant equipment - which I sadly lacked.

Pop stardom is not very compelling. I'm much more interested in a relationship between performer and audience that is of equals. I came up through folk music and there's no pomp and circumstance to the performance. There's no like 'I'll be the rock star you be the adulating fan.'

Marilyn Monroe never sold a platinum album. And more people know my music than what I look like.

First of all the music that people call Latin or Spanish is really African. So Black people need to get the credit for that.

It seems to me that one thing people do over and over again is try to figure out how to get married stay married fall in love how to rekindle all this stuff. It seems to me to be a pretty eternal theme so I don't know if you can get typecast from making movies about men relating to women. It seems to be what is going on on the planet a lot.

The fact is that I find more most men are more open more generous and much more stimulating than the majority of females I know.

But I wanted marriage for myself. I was not calculating about it. I wish I was more calculating.

Marriage is sacred and protected and has nothing to do with violating our civil rights.

Any sex outside of the marriage bond between a man and a woman is violating God's law.

In December 1998 I considered myself an expert on love. I was almost a year into a relationship one that had grown more slowly than I had wished but once it flowered it was much more stimulating than any marriage or relationship I had known.

Father in spite of all this spending of money in learning Latin I will be a painter.

The British system had requirements including Latin. I'm not positive you ever had to know Greek but there are certainly kinds of curricula where you had to know Greek too. I think in Britain there was the most mindless repetitive sort of learning.

In addition to the research I enjoyed learning French and assimilating the culture of another country.