Home / Quotes / Quote by Stephen Dobyns

Quote by Stephen Dobyns

“Louise Gluck, C.K. Williams, Thomas Lux. A lot of the poets that I like are the ones that influenced me as a writer.”

Quote by Stephen Dobyns

Author

Stephen Dobyns is an American poet born on February 19, 1941. His poetry is known for its profound emotion and rich imagination, covering a wide range of themes including love, death, history, and religion. more

You May Also Like

“I remember coming upon Philip Larkin in my 20s in the early '60s and when Sylvia Plath's "Ariel" came out it knocked me off my feet.”

Remember Feet Philip Ariel Plath

Author:Stephen Dobyns

“I feel nervous because I revere [Zadie Smith] so much. I don't want to be stupid. If I say something stupid, just interrupt me.”

Ifs Want Feels Stupid Nervous

Author:George Saunders

“I have a lot of theories about the beneficial effects of fiction, but I'm always trying to get away from them a little bit.”

Trying Littles Bits Fiction Effects Theory Little Bit Get Away Beneficial Always Trying

Author:George Saunders

“I watched a documentary about the immigrant crisis around the world. And it does make me blush at all the times I've stood up on the stage and given your speech about the healing power of fiction.”

World Doe Given Healing Fiction Stage Speech Crisis Around The World Immigrants Documentaries Stood Up

Author:George Saunders

“Just through the process of trying to make the living and the dead feel real, all these little benefits came out. And these benefits turned out to be much more articulate statements of what I really believe. And somehow they were more convincing because they were arrived at at such length.”

Feels Trying Believe Littles Real Process Benefits Statements Length Convincing

Author:George Saunders

“As the writer of this book [Lincoln in the Bardo], what I loved was the feeling of having so many surprises come at the end that I hadn't really planned or planted.”

Book Ends Feelings Surprise

Author:George Saunders

“I'm not thinking in any big thematic or conceptual terms - especially in this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] when I was trying to make the voices more active, more energetic.”

Thinking Trying Book Bigs Voice Term Active Energetic Thematic

Author:George Saunders

“Whole swaths of the book [Lincoln in the Bardo] are made up of verbatim quotes from various historical sources, which I cut up and rearranged to form part of the narrative.”

Made Book Whole Form Cutting Source Historical Various Narrative

Author:George Saunders

“There was one sequence of days [making Lincoln in the Bardo] when I had halfway decided to use the historical nuggets, but I wasn't quite sure it would work. I'd be in my room for six or seven hours, cutting up bits of paper with quotes and arranging them on the floor, with this little voice in my head saying, "Hey, this isn't writing!" But at the end of that day, I felt that the resulting section was doing important emotional work”

Writing Littles Important Ends Use Felt Bits Voice Hours Rooms Cutting Emotional Paper Six Decided Historical Seven Hey Sections Sequence Halfway Arranging Nuggets Voices In My Head

Author:George Saunders

“Later, I went one step further, by putting in some invented "historical" bits [into the Lincoln in the Bardo]. And reading those alongside the actual historical bits was like looking into a sort of a painful mirror, because "my" parts were so show-offy at first. They stood out because they were so flamboyant.”

Firsts Shows Reading Bits Steps Mirrors Historical Painful Flamboyant

Author:George Saunders