“It's my experience that people write better when they feel at ease and free to experiment, rather than being in a competitive, hypercritical atmosphere. There are always a few students who want me to be tough or harsh, but it's really not my style.” PeopleWantFeelsWritingStyleStudentsToughExperimentsAtmosphereEaseWant MeHarsh Author:Elaine Equi
“I don't write every day, but if I go more than a couple of months without writing, I begin to get a little nervous. I usually have bursts of poems. Five or six come together and then I slack off and want to do something else.” IfsWantWritingLittlesTogetherFiveMonthsCoupleSixNervous Author:Elaine Equi
“In the past things were either in your head (subjective, imaginary, fantasy) or else they were part of the outside world - cold, hard, concrete materialistic reality. If you want to look at it in terms of poetry, there was surrealism and objectivism. Now there's the veil of the virtual in between. The old opposition between inner and outer doesn't quite capture it, especially as it contains elements of both. It's real but not concrete.” IfsWorldWantLooksRealHardRealityPastTermFantasyColdElementsOppositionCaptureConcreteImaginaryVeilsSubjectiveMaterialisticOutside WorldSurrealismObjectivism Author:Elaine Equi
“I never liked the philosophy that you can have everything and be everything and that something is wrong if you don't want that. I'm terrible at multitasking and find it hard to believe that no one protests this general trend of using the rhetoric of self actualization to sell you faster and faster phones and computers, BlackBerrys, etc.” IfsWantBelieveSelfHardPhilosophyTerribleComputerSellsPhonesFasterEtcProtestTrendsRhetoricSelf ActualizationHard To BelieveMultitaskingActualization Author:Elaine Equi
“When I think of someone equating poems and machines, it makes me feel like that person would like poems to have a more obvious use value in society. They're not happy with poetry being this ephemeral, indefinable thing. They want it to be "real."” ThinkingWantFeelsPersonsRealUseValuesMachinesObviousPoetry IsBeing RealNot HappyEphemeralIndefinableValues In Society Author:Elaine Equi