“When I applied to Stanford, I applied for graduate work in the PhD program, not to the creative writing program, mostly because though I had some vague ambition of becoming a writer and I was trying to write poems and essays and stories, I didn't feel like I was far enough along to submit work to some place and have it judged.” FeelsWritingTryingEnoughStoriesCreativeBecomingAmbitionProgramJudgedGraduatesSubmitVagueEssaysCreative WritingStanfordPhds Author:Robert Hass
“If you were making poetry out of convictions - trying to convince other people - you were in the territory of rhetoric, and that wasn't the territory of poetry. I think that's pretty smart. I think that it doesn't need to be altogether true, but that was my starting place.” PeopleIfsThinkingNeedsTryingSmartStartingConvictionConvinceTerritoryRhetoric Author:Robert Hass
“After Pope, in the beginning of Romanticism, people developed the idea that imagination rather than reason was a special form of knowledge and its best expression is through poetry. Therefore, poetry should not try to do the stuff that mere prose does: convey information or make arguments about ideas.” PeopleShouldTryingDoeIdeasReasonFormStuffImaginationSpecialInformationExpressionArgumentMereProsePopeRomanticism Author:Robert Hass
“Pound described poetry as original research in language, and just as formal experiment in poetry has to try things and has to go too far, so does experiment with writing about politics in poetry and what the politics of poetry is.” WritingTryingDoeLanguageResearchOriginalsExperimentsPoundsPoetry IsFormal Author:Robert Hass
“I think that my responsibility to my art is to try to get it right or to push the boundaries of what I'm able to do in any way.” ThinkingWayTryingArtAbleResponsibilityArt IsBoundaries Author:Robert Hass
“Another problem about writing about politics in the "age of globalization" is that so much of the violence in the form of war and also in the forms of institutional violence - sweatshops, child labor, victimization of people economically - happens elsewhere and out of sight. And when we do know about it and need to witness it, it's always mediated by images of one kind or another, so you're kind of stuck trying to write about what it's like trying to be you living your life thinking about and experiencing this stuff in that way.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayNeedsWritingTryingKindChildrenWarProblemHappensAgeFormStuffViolenceLaborSightStuckWitnessBe YouElsewhereLive Your LifeGlobalizationVictimizationChild LaborSweatshops Author:Robert Hass
