"Paul Caponigro assured me, as he settled into his chair and lit a Camel, that smoking helped him think. I took this to be simply a reflexive statement appended to a life-long habit, but as the smoke bloomed in the rafters I could see it was true." With this impressionistic sketch begins a conversation that explores an artist's life, philosophical quest and artistic revelations. Photography and classical music, the streets of 1930s Boston, the teachings of Gurdjieff, the creative hothouses of 1950s San Francisco and Rochester, reflections on friends and mentors, Minor White, Ansel Adams, Beaumont Newhall, a trajectory from Maine to Ireland, Santa Fe to Japan, are all a part of the most extensive interview conducted with this surpassingly introspective and contemplative artist.