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Allen Ginsberg!” I mean she knew the name. He was famous at that time, a great poet. At that moment Peter Orlovsky comes in again looking rather bizarre and he says something to Allen: “I'll meet you later” at some place, and he leaves. Dina says very straight-faced, “Is that his lover?” And I said, “Yes, I think so. That's what everybody believes.” It didn't phase her at all. Here's a woman -- how can I put it? I described her as the Anna Magnani of Bleeker Street, someone who's very religious, someone whose philosophy is just overwhelmed by home and family -- her kids go to parochial school. Very accepting. Very accepting of Allen Ginsberg and his life style. That's what makes the Village a very nice place.
The third thing I had with Allen Ginsberg was he sent me mail. He sent it to me about the heroin traffic. He happens to believe in the legalization of heroin. I don't believe in the legalization of heroin. He's probably right -- I'm probably wrong -- but those are the positions that he and I have respectively. So his mail to me is long letters trying to get me to be supportive of heroin maintenance, and he was attacking articles which were appearing in the Times that particular period done by a very good writer who did a whole series about heroin maintenance in England and how bad it was and how people were going on heroin as a result of it. Allen Ginsberg was criticizing these articles. In the letter that he sent to me he talked about how generals in South Vietnam were in charge of the heroin trade. And I
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