The tone of a lot of prose can be more exciting than a lot of poetry I read. When you're very young, you're original and that's good. All originality is imitation, of course. Everything has been done before. Joseph Brodsky once said, 'Everyone wants a book.
Nobody wants a poem.' . .
We wanted to go after something as essential as possible. We didn't want to do a phony Spanish thing or something. Well, it flopped. I can also say I find a lot of 'West Side Story' patronizing. I can put that down.