“For years, I’ve found inspiration by going to museums by myself. Going solo is key. When I’m with other people I’m always wondering whether they’re having a good time, and whether I’m lingering too long in a gallery.
One of the first poems I ever published was inspired by seeing Gustav Klimt’s portrait of Mäda Primavesi at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when I was nineteen and nearly friendless in New York City. I have another poem sparked by Marc Chagall’s ‘The Birthday’ at the MoMA. I love the Art Institute of Chicago and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I rarely ever bring a camera, but I always bring a notebook.”
—Leigh Stein, author of Dispatch From the Future (Melville Books, 2012)