"This series of sentences may be able to add many more to them" (Stein, How 159)

In order to answer this question, I must first make reference to the sculptor Alberto Giacometti (1901-66), who cast gaunt stickfigures in bronze. The bronze sculptures are not, technically speaking, his art. Giacometti emphasized process over product. He would start with plump clay figures and whittle them down to nothing. The very act of whittling--an early form of performance art--was the artistic act itself, not the final form. Well, I write on an electronic typewriter. I carefully hammer out each line of prose. I never cut and paste or mechanically reproduce the text. The act of writing is my art. What you see before you is the result. Accordingly, I emphasize process over product.

My writing is experimental. By experimental, I mean that I eschew standard conventions of usage and mechanics. I do so to expand the possible boundaries of my text. I must keep the format flexible if I am to make new discoveries.

This is a very difficult question to answer because I have never seen a watertight definition of poetry. The short answer to the question is prose. I tried my hand at being a poet but finally settled on experimental fiction.

I use an economy of language, leaving much up to the reader to figure out. In a sense, the reader completes the meaning of the text. Of course, I provide ample clues--they're just subtle. For example, consider the following line from the novel Psyche!:

A doppleganger stirs within the cyclotron.

The indefinite and definite articles are very important here. Specifically, it is not a particular doppleganger, just a doppleganger. The cyclotron is specific, however--the cyclotron. I do not indicate which, though. Thus, the prosodic line is open-ended, allowing for speculation. I would also add that the sections of my novels, and even the novels themselves, tie together, so clues abound as to which cyclotron I mean; one must know where to find the answer. (Hint: The best hiding place is out in the open.) I fully realize such ambiguity could frustrate a reader looking for a concrete, traditional narrative, which brings me to the next FAQ.

Read as much or little as you wish. I think you will find, however, that by reading or chanting the prose out loud, that it becomes hypnotic, leading to an altered state of consciousness, or at least an altered state of awareness. Suddenly details that seem very straightforward, focused, and mundane assume a vast, panoramic scope. Some people enjoy reading my work while high. While I do not use drugs, I perfectly understand their predilection. Fans write and tell me about what a big hit my books are while partygoers gather around a bong. I'm pleased that people find my work engaging, regardless of the means used to engage with it.

Gertrude Stein remains my teacher for life. When I first read her mammoth The Making of Americans, I thought, "I wish I had written this." And think, the book is over one hundred years old! Miss Stein was a great innovator and her work continues to inspire artists across disciplines and generations down to this very day.