Voznesensky came up with a metaphor, and to some extent it”s correct, although not entirely accurate. He said that the 1960s poets were all completely different, they embarked on very different life journeys, but got captured by robbers and tied to the same tree with the same ropes. Maybe, in my case with relation to Voznesensky, this is true. But it”s not the same with Robert and me. I don”t think our paths were so different. First, we had the same favorite poets. There was a tradition at the Literary Institute — a test of one”s integrity, in other words a “gut-check”, to test one’s knowledge of poems. We tested each other this way once and right away became friends with Robert. Absolutely. Because of the poems.