I also managed to maintain proper, friendly father-son relations with my father – a relation between a loving father and a loving son right up to his death, and that's something I am very happy about. And also, of course, with my mother. Well, my mother, she didn't have anything to do with politics but she was the wife of a well known politician and as a consequence that same shadow fell on her, too, to some degree. Well, and so when I graduated from university I was clearly not pro-Soviet but rather anti-Soviet. I graduated from university. To tell the truth, I had begun to write poems before graduating. I consider myself first and foremost a poet. Relatively speaking I haven't written many, all the poems I've written throughout my life were published recently in one book. There are only 204 works in it, which is relatively little. Lithuanian poets usually write about 1000, several thousand poems, and I, a little over 200. Well, but, [Henrikas] Radauskas, to take an example – whom I loved – also probably wrote about 200 poems. And that's enough for one to have a place in Lithuanian literature if the texts are good, and Radauskas's, without a doubt, are good. I can't say anything about my own.

Mums taip pat pavyko su tėvu palaikyti korektiškus, bičiuliškus tėvo ir sūnaus ryšius. Mylinčio tėvo ir mylinčio sūnaus ryšius, ligi pat jo mirties, kuo aš labai džiaugiuosi. Taip pat, žinoma, ir su motina. Na, motina, ji su politika neturėjo nieko bendro, bet buvo žinomo politinio veikėjo žmona ir tuo pačiu ir ant jos tas šešėlis šiek tiek krito. Na, ir štai kada jau aš baigiau universitetą buvau jau aiškiai ne tarybiškai ir netgi antitarybiškai nusiteikęs. Baigęs universitetą, tiesa, tada dar nebaigęs jau pradejau rašyti eileraščius. Aš laikau save pirmiausiai poetu. Eilėraščių esu parašęs palyginti nedaug, neseniai išleista viso mano gyvenimo eilėraščių knyga. Joje yra tikrai 204 tekstai, kas palyginti labai nedaug. Lietuvių poetai paprastai parašo po 1000, po kelis tūkstančius eilėraščių, aš apie du šimtus su trupučiu. Na, bet Radauskas, sakysime, kurį aš mylėjau, taip pat parašė turbūt tik apie 200 eilėraščių. Ir to užtenka, kad liktum lietuvių literatūroje, jeigu tie tekstai yra geri, o Radausko, be abejo, yra geri. Apie savo tekstus negaliu spręsti.