“I think there's no excuse for the American poetry reader not knowing a good deal about what is going on in the rest of the world.” ThinkingWorldDealsKnowingReaderExcuseNot KnowingNo ExcusesAmerican Poetry Author:James Laughlin
“Every now and then, I strike something that just goes click, you know, in my head. As Gertrude Stein used to say, it rings the bell, and I feel, this is great.” KnowsFeelsUsedStrikesRingsBellsNow And ThenClicksGertrude Author:James Laughlin
“I think most people read and re-read the things that they have liked. That's certainly true in my case. I re-read Pound a great deal, I re-read Williams, I re-read Thomas, I re-read the people whom I cam to love when I was at what you might call a formative stage.” PeopleThinkingMightDealsCasesStagePounds Author:James Laughlin
“I think that concrete poetry seems to have, as far as I can see, come to a kind of a dead end. It doesn't seem to be going any further than it went in its high period of about five or six years ago.” ThinkingYearsKindI CanEndsSeemsFivePeriodsSixYears AgoConcreteDead Ends Author:James Laughlin
“I think that is where poetry reading becomes such an individual thing. I mean I have friend who like poets who just don't say anything to me at all, I mean they seem to me rather ordinary and pedestrian.” ThinkingMeanSeemsReadingIndividualPoetOrdinarySay AnythingPedestriansPoetry Reading Author:James Laughlin
“I think there is a great difference, in that when the poet is reading you get the whole personality of the person, especially if he's a good reader. Whereas a person just sitting gets what he puts into it.” IfsThinkingPersonsWholeReadingDifferencesPoetPersonalityReaderSitting Author:James Laughlin
“I think we will always have the impulse towards visual poetry with us, and I wouldn't agree with Bly that it's a bad thing. It depends on the ability of the individual poet to do it well, and to make a shape which is interesting enough to hold your attention.” ThinkingWellsEnoughIndividualAbilityInterestingAttentionPoetDependsShapesAgreeImpulseVisualsBad Things Author:James Laughlin
“Concrete poets continue to turn out beautiful things, but to me they're more visual than oral, and they almost really belong on the wall rather than in a book. I haven't the least idea of where poetry is going.” BookIdeasBeautifulTurnsHavensPoetWallVisualsPoetry IsConcreteBeautiful Things Author:James Laughlin
“It's all well and good to say that Germans were all responsible for the concentration camps, but I don't think they were. I think that was the work of a small group of fiends.” ThinkingWellsGroupsResponsibleConcentrationCampsSmall GroupsConcentration Camp Author:James Laughlin
“With me it's the whole thing, it's the conceit, the idea, what the poem is saying. And it goes on just as long as is necessary to say what needs to be said.” NeedsLongSaidIdeasWholeGoes OnConceit Author:James Laughlin
“[Gertrude Stein] really needed someone like Virgil Thomson, whom she respected, to sit on her a bit and make her devise some plot.” BitsNeededPlotGertrudeNeeded Someone Author:James Laughlin
“Of course a poem is a two-way street. No poem is any good if it doesn't suggest to the reader things from his own mind and recollection that he will read into it, and will add to what the poet has suggested. But I do think poetry readings are very important.” IfsThinkingWayMindTwoImportantCoursesReadingStreetsPoetReaderAddTwo WaysRecollectionTwo Way StreetPoetry Reading Author:James Laughlin
“I try to write in plain brown blocks of American speech but occasionally set in an ancient word or a strange word just to startle the reader a little bit and to break up the monotony of the plain American cadence.” WritingTryingLittlesBitsBreakStrangeReaderSpeechLittle BitAncientBlockBrownBreak UpMonotonousMonotonyCadence Author:James Laughlin
“I often feel I'm working in a vacuum, or in a country where few readers hear the sounds.” FeelsCountrySoundReaderVacuums Author:James Laughlin
“I think one ages and one dates. I tend to have a good deal of difficulty in liking some of the new poets.” ThinkingAgeDealsPoetDifficulty Author:James Laughlin
“We do very little re-writing in the office. We often take on people who show great promise and who we hope will develop into somebody important and someone good.” PeopleWritingLittlesImportantShowsPromiseOffice Author:James Laughlin
“I do read everything that we publish. We usually have to have two or three votes for a book before we take it on. So in that sense I suppose it is an orchestra.” TwoBookThreeVoteOrchestraPublish Author:James Laughlin
