John Ashbery, The Art of Poetry No. 33

Pyrography: John Ashbery working, 1984. Larry Rivers.
"The interview was conducted at John Ashbery's apartment in the section of Manhattan known as Chelsea. When I arrived, Ashbery was away, and the doorman asked me to wait outside. Soon the poet arrived and we went up by elevator to a spacious, well-lighted apartment in which a secretary was hard at work. We sat in easy chairs in the living room, Ashbery with his back to the large windows. The predominant decor was blue and white, and books lined the whole of one wall. We talked for more than three hours with only one short break for refreshment—soda, tea, water, nothing stronger."
The Paris Review