“There should be a law that no ordinary newspaper should be allowed to write about art. The harm they do by their foolish and random writing it would be impossible to overestimate--not to the artist but to the public.... Without them we would judge a man simply by his work; but at present the newspapers are trying hard to induce the public to judge a sculptor, for instance, never by his statues but by the way he treats his wife; a painter by the amount of his income and a poet by the colour of his necktie.” MenWayShouldWritingTryingArtHardWould BeLawArtistWifeImpossiblePoetJudgingAmountOrdinaryTreatsHarmFoolishNewspapersIncomePainterInstanceColourStatuesSculptorsTrying HardOverestimateNeckties Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays Source: The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
“Poetry is the most direct and simple means of expressing oneself in words: the most primitive nations have poetry, but only quitewell developed civilizations can produce good prose. So don't think of poetry as a perverse and unnatural way of distorting ordinary prose statements: prose is a much less natural way of speaking than poetry is. If you listen to small children, and to the amount of chanting and singsong in their speech, you'll see what I mean.” IfsThinkingWayMeanChildrenPoetryNationsNaturalSimpleProducePoetAmountCivilizationSpeechOrdinaryDirectOneselfStatementsProsePoetry IsPrimitiveUnnaturalSmall ChildChantingExpressing Oneself Author:Northrop Frye
“Every poet has a certain amount of "stuff." That's what you draw from for imagery. The more stuff you know well, not simply intellectually but sensually, emotionally, intimately, the wider the pool from which you draw.” KnowsWellsCertainStuffPoetAmountDrawsPoolImagery Author:Marge Piercy
“You must have a certain amount of maturity to be a poet. Seldom do sixteen-year-olds know themselves well enough.” KnowsYearsWellsEnoughCertainPoetAmountMaturitySixteenSixteen Year Olds Author:Erica Jong
“I just think that the world of workshops - I've written a poem that is a parody of workshop talk, I've written a poem that is a kind of parody of a garrulous poet at a poetry reading who spends an inordinate amount of time explaining the poem before reading it, I've written a number of satirical poems about other poets.” ThinkingWorldKindReadingNumbersWrittenPoetAmountExplainingWorkshopsParodySatiricalPoetry Reading Author:Billy Collins
“I didn't ever consider poetry the province exclusively of English and American literature and I discovered a great amount in reading Polish poetry and other Eastern European poetry and reading Russian poetry and reading Latin American and Spanish poetry and I've always found models in those other poetries of poets who could help me on my path.” HelpingReadingFoundLiteraturePathPoetAmountModelsHelp MeLatinEasternPolishLatin AmericaProvincesAmerican LiteratureLatin American Author:Edward Hirsch