“The question ‘Why poetry?’ isn’t asking what makes poetry unique among art forms; poetry may indeed share its origins with other forms of privileged utterance. A somewhat more interesting question would be: “What is the nature of experience, and especially the experience of using language, that calls poetic utterance into existence? What is there about experience that’s unutterable?” You can’t generalize very usefully about poetry; you can’t reduce its nature down to a kernel that underlies all its various incarnations. I guess my internal conversation suggests that if you can’t successfully answer the question of “Why poetry?,” can’t reduce it in the way I think you can’t, then maybe that’s the strongest evidence that poetry’s doing its job; it’s creating an essential need and then satisfying it.” PoetryReadingLanguageBooksPoetry QuotesBook Quotes Author:Richard Ford
“I grew up in Mississippi being told it was a great place, but not feeling that. When I finally began reading seriously, literature showed me something about where I was from which was worthwhile.” FeelingsReadingLiteratureGrewGrew UpWorthwhileMississippi Author:Richard Ford
“When I write a novel I start each morning by reading for 20 minutes.” WritingReadingMorningNovelMinutes Author:Richard Ford
“I started reading literature at 17 or 18, and I felt this extra beat to life.” ReadingLiteratureFeltBeatsExtrasReading Literature Author:Richard Ford
