“How far we are going to read a poet when we can read about a poet is a problem to lay before biographers.” ProblemPoetLaysBiographers Book:Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated) Source: Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)
“Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. There is, there has been, there will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem that they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous 'I don't know.'” PeopleKnowsHas BeensMadeProblemInspirationJobsArtistCertainBornImaginationGroupsPoetCallingDifficultyCuriosityPrivilegeSolveChosenExclusiveSetbackSwarms Author:Wislawa Szymborska
“To a large extent, the problems of poets are the problems of painters, and poets must often turn to the literature of painting for a discussion of their own problems.” ProblemTurnsLiteraturePaintingPoetPainterDiscussion Author:Wallace Stevens
“I thought that perhaps the most creative mix for a society would be nine parts solid worker from institutions like MIT to one part poet from Marrakech, but in spite of the fact that I myself had been trained to be one of the solid workers, which meant that all of my sympathies lay with that group, I would not surrender the poet. The problem was to find him.” FactsProblemWould BeCreativeGroupsPoetInstitutionsLaysWorkersSurrenderNineSpiteMy SympathyMitMarrakech Author:James A. Michener
“There's a sameness about American poetry that I don't think represents the whole people. It represents a poetry of the moment, a poetry of evasion, and I have problems with this. I believe poetry has always been political, long before poets had to deal with the page and white space . . . it's natural.” PeopleThinkingBelieveLongWholeMomentsProblemPoliticalI BelieveNaturalSpaceWhiteDealsPoetPagesSamenessEvasionAmerican PoetryThis I BelieveWhite Space Author:Yusef Komunyakaa
“A poet has to adapt himself, more or less consciously,to the demands of his vocation, and hence the peculiarities of poets and the condition of inspiration which many people have said is near to madness... The problem of creative writing is essentially one of concentration... a focusing of the attention in a special way.” PeopleWayWritingSaidProblemInspirationAttentionCreativeSpecialConditionsPoetDemandMadnessConcentrationVocationCreative Writing Author:Stephen Spender
“Another trouble with poetry - and I'm gonna stop the list at two - is the presence of presumptuousness in poetry, the sense you get in a poem that the poet takes for granted an interest on the reader's part in the poet's autobiographical life, in the poet's memories, problems, difficulties and even minor perceptions.” TwoProblemInterestMemoriesTroublePoetReaderPerceptionDifficultyListsGrantedMinors Author:Billy Collins
“In America it's a particular problem. The artist, particularly the poet, is just unacknowledged; if I can use that dumb word. Maybe it has always been that way. Maybe the only way he or she can be acknowledged is to be connected with some movement, be it religious or political.” IfsWayI CanUseProblemAmericaPoliticalArtistReligiousMovementParticularPoetConnectedDumb Author:Gerald Stern
“I haven't seen any poet in this country behave nearly as rudely as Newt Gingrich or Bill O'Reilly. I'm not asking these people to approve of everyone's manners. I don't feel obliged to defend the manners of every poet who submits a poem to my web site. That's not my job. My job is to provide them with an opportunity to speak from the heart. If there's not much in the heart and if the mouth is running wild, that's not my problem.” PeopleIfsFeelsHeartCountryProblemRunningJobsOpportunitySpeakHavensPoetMouthsAskingBillsMannersBehaveSubmitSiteObligedNewtsBill O ReillyRunning WildSpeak From The Heart Author:Sam Hamill
“The problem with describing poets as legislators is that at that level of politics - politics as political invention - poets have no special skills and are not apt to.” ProblemPoliticalLevelsSpecialPoetSkillsInventionDescribingLegislators Author:Robert Hass
“The photo-journalist and the photo-poet are both important. The problem is to separate the major objectives of the various groups and not to attribute qualities and intentions where they do not belong.” ImportantProblemQualityGroupsPoetMajorsIntentionVariousObjectivesJournalistAttributes Author:Ansel Adams
“A trouble with poetry is the presence of presumptuousness in poetry, the sense you get in a poem that the poet takes for granted an interest on the reader's part in the poet's autobiographical life, in the poet's memories, problems, difficulties and even minor perceptions. I try to presume that no one is interested in me. And I think experience bears that out. No one's interested in the experiences of a stranger - let's put it that way. And then you have difficulty combined with presumptuousness, which is the most dire trouble with poetry.” ThinkingWayTryingProblemInterestMemoriesTroublePoetBearsReaderPerceptionDifficultyStrangerGrantedPoetry IsMinors Author:Billy Collins
“I think we all recognize that one of the problems in American culture is that increasingly, there's no middle ground. That either you're a celebrity writer or a celebrity poet, or else you're nothing.” ThinkingProblemCultureMiddlePoetAmerican CultureMiddle Ground Author:Frederic Tuten
“If an artwork never gets any attention from anybody, then obviously it's got problems. If it gains attention from a very small elite, then it's presumably doing something. Finnegans Wake gets a lot of attention from certain people who become passionate about it, who are usually very good readers in general. Although - I often talk about costs and benefits - it seems to me the costs of reading Finnegans Wake are not worth the benefits, however many there may be. And it's the same with the more arcane among poets, Zukofsky and so on.” PeopleProblemReadingAttentionPoetVery GoodPassionate Author:Brian Boyd