the first one is john ashbery. what is this? >> it is a poem. >> i tell myself it all seems like fun and will work out in the end. i expect i will be asked a question i can answer and then be handed a big prize. >> that quote to me manifests a thought which i always had as a young student, at the end of this getting golden stars, there was going to be a celebration of walter kirn. i had the generic need for approval. that little excerpt speaks to that. >> were you an only child? >> i had a brother. he works as a paralegal for a financial firm. >> you quote f. scott fitzgerald. i see now that this has been a story of the west. >> f. scott fitzgerald lived in a house not far from mcallister college. i was very aware of him. we had these great identities. in an attempt to fit in in the american classis, that was up corporate to my book because my experience in going to princeton was similarly disastrous and ran along similar themes. i wanted desperately to be accepted by what i perceive to be for the first time a real american hier