“America's most fascinating outlaw.”

Paris Review interview (1986)
Context: Whitman to me is the most fascinating of American poets. Whitman started to write the great poetry from scratch after he had written all that junk for newspapers, the sentimental lyrical poems. All of a sudden he wrote Leaves of Grass. When I was teaching at the University of Nebraska, my friend James Miller was chairman of the English Department. He wrote the first book attempting to make a parallel between the structure of Leaves of Grass and the steps of the mystical experience as in St. John of the Cross. I was completely bowled over by this, not having been able to explain how Whitman came to write “Song of Myself,” which is unlike anything not only in American literature, but unique in all the world. The parallels to it are mystical literature. Miller tried to show that there was actual evidence for this kind of experience, which evidently happens at a particular moment in someone’s life. … When I saw the negative reaction to Whitman with the great ruling critics of the time, I couldn’t believe it. Eliot never really gave up hammering away on Whitman, neither did Pound. Although Pound makes little concessions. Whitman, you know, didn’t have any influence in this country until Allen Ginsberg came along.

Original: (it) ​Sei la mia più affascinante e rischiosa tentazione.
Source: prevale.net

O, The Oprah Magazine (November 2003) http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/200311/omag_200311_toni_b.jhtml <br class="br">Context: The idea of a wanton woman is something I have inserted into almost all of my books. An outlaw figure who is disallowed in the community because of her imagination or activity or status — that kind of anarchic figure has always fascinated me. And the benefits they bring with them, in spite of the fact that they are either dismissed or upbraided — something about their presence is constructive in the long run.

Why I Wrote PGP http://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/essays/WhyIWrotePGP.html, Part of the original 1991 PGP User&#x27;s Guide (updated in 1999)

From the Quotes http://www.prevale.net/quotes.html page of the official website of Prevale <br class="br">Original: (it) ​Sei il pensiero più affascinante ed importante dei miei giorni. <br class="br">Source: prevale.net

Original: (it) ​​Sei la mia più affascinante e rischiosa tentazione. ​

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis in Deserto) (1990)

Source: Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

Source: Tomorrow Stories, Vol. 2