“In America, where you'd have thought the country's so huge it couldn't happen quite so cosily, everyone's giving his imprimatur to everyone else. You line up three or four well-known poets and a couple of eminent academics on the dustjacket, and the rest of academe follow like sheep. That's death really, if you take pleasure in it. Mind you, the occasional puff's hard to resist, but you shouldn't inhale.” IfsGivingMindWellsCountryHardHappensAmericaThreeLinesPleasureKnownFourPoetHugeCoupleSheepWell KnownOccasionalPuffInhale Author:Michael Longley
“I'm not against ambition and reach, but if you can say it in four lines, why waste your time saying it in more? Challenge the world by all means, but it's bad for your poetry to take steroids.” IfsWorldMeanChallengesLinesFourWasteAmbitionSteroid Author:Michael Longley
