Best poet & writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 3

“The Language Poets are writing only about language itself. The Ashbery poets are writing only about poetry itself. That seems to me a kind of dead end.”

Writing Kind Ends Seems Language Poet Dead Ends

Author:Robert Morgan

“Corruption is subtle, just like the Bible said. Many young poets have come to me and asked, How am I gonna make it? They feel, and often with considerable justice, that they are being overlooked while others with less talent are out there making careers for themselves. I always give the same advice. I say, Do it the hard way, and you’ll always feel good about yourself. You write because you have to, and you get this unbelievable satisfaction from doing it well. Try to live on that as long as you’re able.”

Way Giving Feels Writing Trying Wells Long Said Hard Able Young Justice Careers Advice Talent Poet Satisfaction Corruption Feel Good Subtle About Yourself Unbelievable Overlooked Hard Way

Author:Philip Levine

“I started out in life as a poet, I was only writing poetry all through my 20s, it wasn't until I was about 30 that I got serious about writing prose. While I was writing poems, I would often divert myself by reading detective novels, I liked them.”

Writing Reading Novel Serious Poet Prose Detectives Writing Poetry Writing Poems

Author:Paul Auster

“Black actors on the road, flying around the country working as poets. Those people are inspirations for millions of kids who write.”

People Writing Country Inspiration Kids Actors Black Millions Poet Flying

Author:Russell Simmons

“For poets that have had my luck, Seldom write when they can kiss.”

Writing Poet Kissing Luck

Author:Alex Comfort

“If you would be a poet, write living newspapers. Be a reporter from outer space, filing dispatches to some supreme managing editor who believes in full disclosure and has a low tolerance for bullshit.”

Ifs Writing Believe Would Be Space Poet Lows Tolerance Newspapers Supreme Editors Bullshit Reporters Outer Space Disclosure Filing

Book:Poetry as Insurgent Art

Source: Poetry as Insurgent Art

“I would not recommend poetry as a career. In the first place, it's impossible in this time and place - in this culture - to make poetry a career. The writing of poetry is one thing. It's an obsession, the scratching of a divine itch, and has nothing to do with money. You can, however, make a career out of being a poet by teaching, traveling around, and giving lectures. It's a thin living at best.”

Giving Writing Firsts Culture Careers Impossible One Thing Teaching Divine Poet Obsession Poetry Is Lectures

Author:Maxine Kumin

“What the world wants, what the world is waiting for, is not Modern Poetry or Classical Poetry or Neo-Classical Poetry - but Good Poetry. And the dreadful disreputable doubt, which stirs in my own skeptical mind, is doubt about whether it would really matter much what style a poet chose to write in, in any period, as long as he wrote Good poetry.”

World Want Writing Mind Long Matter Waiting My Own Doubt Modern Style Poet Periods Skeptical Modern Poetry Good Poetry

Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Schoolchildren all over America are told to write to authors-often to authors whom they have never before heard of, whose work they are to young to understand in the least, and often in letters which are almost illiterate. If children are to be taught to respect the work of American poets I think some better way might be found to do so- some way which would not make such an inconsiderate demand on the author's time.”

Ifs Thinking Way Writing Children Might America Young Found Heard Taught Poet Demand Letters Better Ways Illiterate Inconsiderate

Author:Conrad Aiken

“The poet's first rule must be never to bore his readers; and his best way of keeping this rule is never to bore himself-which, of course, means to write only when he has something urgent to say.”

Way Writing Firsts Mean Courses Poet Reader Best Way Bores Urgent

Book:Collected writings on poetry

Source: Collected writings on poetry

“Poetry is probably the one field of writing in which it is a mistake to try to psych out editors. In fact, specific marketing advice can sometimes harm the novice poet by enticing him to pursue fashions. The poet's best hope is to sound like nobody else, The finest, most enduring poetry constructs a marketplace of its own.”

“If you want to write poetry, you must have poems that deeply move you. Poems you can't live without. I think of a poem as the blood in a blood transfusion, given from the heart of the poet to the heart of the reader. Seek after poems that live inside you, poems that move through your veins.”

Ifs Thinking Want Writing Heart Moving Given Blood Poet Reader Veins Blood Transfusion

Author:Ralph Fletcher

“A lot of people think they can write poetry, and many do, because they can figure out how to line up the words or make certain sounds rhyme or just imitate the other poets they've read. But this boy, he's the real poet, because when he tries to put on paper what he's seen with his heart, he will believe deep down that there are no good words for it, no words can do it, and at that moment he will have begun to write poetry.”

People Thinking Writing Trying Believe Heart Real Moments Certain Sound Can Do Lines Boys Figures Poet Paper That Moment Rhyme Deep Down Good Words

Author:Cynthia Rylant

“I write first drafts with only the good angel on my shoulder, the voice that approves of everything I write. This voice does'nt ask questions like, Is this good? Is this a poem? Are you a poet? I keep this voice at a distance, letting only the good angel whisper to me: Trust yourself. You can't worry a poem into existence.”

Writing Firsts Doe Asks Voice Existence Worry Poet Angel Distance Shoulders Trust Yourself

Author:Georgia Heard

“I know as well as thee that I am no poet born It is a trade, I never learnt nor indeed could learn If I make verses-'tis in spite Of nature and my stars I write.”

Ifs Knows Writing Wells Stars Born Poet Trade Thee Spite Verses

Book:The wit and wisdom of Benjamin Franklin: a treasury of more than 900 quotations and anecdotes

Source: The wit and wisdom of Benjamin Franklin: a treasury of more than 900 quotations and anecdotes

“Once you reach your fifties, you have to stop being interested in the present and write only on Elizabethan poets.”

Writing Poet Elizabethan

Author:Umberto Eco

“I grew up around poets and novelists and my dad wrote poems about everything - from a cat sleeping in a window to a car wreck he passed on the highway. I learned not to censor myself: that was one of things I learned in my apprenticeship, my creative-writing apprenticeship with my dad.”

Writing Sleep Creative Car Poet Grew Dad Grew Up Cat Window My Dad Novelists Highways Creative Writing Wrecks Sleeping In Apprenticeship Car Wreck

Author:Lucinda Williams

“We want to be famous as a writer, as a poet, as a painter, as a politician, as a singer, or what you will. Why? Because we really don't love what we are doing. If you loved to sing, or to paint, or to write poems, if you really loved it you would not be concerned with whether you are famous or not.”

Ifs Want Writing Poet Politician Concerned Paint Singers Painter

Book:This Matter of Culture

Source: This Matter of Culture

“There's nothing in the world for which a poet will give up writing, not even he is a Jew and the language of his poems is German.”

World Giving Writing Language Poet Giving Up Jew

Author:Paul Celan

“You might learn as much about how to write by reading Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Wallace Stevens, Raymond Chandler, Saul Bellow, Paul Muldoon or a hundred other good novelists or poets than by seeing another round of John Ford revivals.”

Writing Might Reading Seeing Poet Hundred Rounds Novelists Revival Reading Shakespeare

Author:David Denby

“When I get sent manuscripts from aspiring poets, I do one of two things: if there is no stamped self-addressed envelope, I throw it into the bin.-If there is, I write and tell them to f**k off.”

Ifs Writing Two Self Poet Two Things Manuscripts Envelopes

Author:Philip Larkin

“To be a good poet, you must care more about the writing, than the writer.”

Writing Care Poet

Author:Lucille Clifton

“My question is "when did other people give up the idea of being a poet?" You know, when we are kids we make up things, we write, and for me the puzzle is not that some people are still writing, the real question is why did the other people stop?”

People Knows Giving Writing Stills Ideas Real Kids Poet Giving Up Puzzles Real Questions

Book:Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer's Vocation

Source: Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer's Vocation

“And when we are writing the life of a woman, we may, it is agreed, waive our demand for action, and substitute love instead. Love, the poet has said, is a woman's whole existence.”

Writing May Said Whole Action Existence Poet Demand Substitutes

Book:Selected Works of Virginia Woolf

Source: Selected Works of Virginia Woolf

“There's nothing wrong with delighting in what you do. In fact, most of the fun you'll have as a poet will come about during the process of writing.”

Writing Facts Fun Process Poet

Author:Ted Kooser

“Even if you're a poet sitting in your room writing a poem, you're still in the world - although I guess being a poet is a different than having to deal with 40 or 50 people to raise a couple million bucks and all that bullshit.”

People Ifs World Writing Stills Different Rooms Deals Millions Poet Couple Sitting Raises Bullshit Bucks Your Room

Author:Abel Ferrara

“The ideal audience the poet imagines consists of the beautiful who go to bed with him, the powerful who invite him to dinner and tell him secrets of state, and his fellow-poets. The actual audience he gets consists of myopic schoolteachers, pimply young men who eat in cafeterias, and his fellow-poets. This means, in fact, he writes for his fellow-poets.”

Men Writing Mean States Facts Beautiful Young Powerful Secret Audience Imagine Poet Bed Ideals Fellows Dinner Young Man Invites Cafeteria Myopic

Author:W. H. Auden

“Sacred scripture is of course the basic authority for everything; yet I sometimes run across ancient sayings or pagan writings - even the poets - so purely and reverently and admirably expressed that I can't help believing the author's hearts were moved by some divine power. And perhaps the spirit of Christ is more widespread than we understand, and the company of the saints includes many not on our calendar.”

Source: The Colloquies of Erasmus

“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.”

People Way Writing Said Problem Inspiration Attention Creative Special Conditions Poet Demand Madness Concentration Vocation Creative Writing

Author:Stephen Spender

“An English poet writes, I think, just for people who are interested in poetry. An American poet writes, and feels that everyone ought to appreciate this. Then he has a deep sense of grievance . . .”

People Thinking Feels Writing Poet Ought Appreciate Grievance

Author:Stephen Spender

“Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the most beloved Buddhist teachers in the West, a rare combination of mystic, poet, scholar, and activist. His luminous presence and the simple, compassionate clarity of his writings have touched countless lives.”

Writing Simple Teacher Poet Masters West Clarity Buddhist Combination Beloved Touched Activist Compassionate Scholar Mystic Luminous Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh

Author:Joanna Macy

“We're talking about an extremely prolific poet and songwriter and lyricist. That stuff comes off the top of her head. She [Joni Mitchell] will write exactly what she lives. If she puts some money in the soda machine, she'll write about putting money in the soda machine. "Dry Cleaner from Des Moines," on the Shadows & Light album, was about sitting next to a dry cleaner from Des Moines, playing a slot machine.”

Ifs Writing Light Poetry Next Stuff Talking Poet Sitting Shadow Machines Albums Dry Songwriters Cleaners Soda Slot Machines Lyricists Des Moines Dry Cleaners

Author:Don Alias

“I think poets are supposed to be writing for television and film. I grew up in the day of early TV that was so raw and funny, and I think we're in the next important moment of television, where it's really telling the epic of the culture like Charles Dickens was doing in the 19th century with his serialized novels.”

Thinking Writing Important Moments Film Culture Next Novel Century Television Poet Tvs Grew Grew Up Supposed To Be Epic 19th Century Dickens Important Moments

Author:Eileen Myles

“Once, I compared poetry to mothers in my book called To Write as a Woman, because my mother is someone who captures me in her body and gave birth to me out of her desire but washed her hands of me after giving birth to me as a poet.”

Giving Writing Book Body Hands Mother Desire Poet Birth Capture Giving Birth

Author:Kim Hyesoon

“That is my essential reason for writing, not for fame, not to be celebrated after death, but to heighten and create life all around me. I also write because when I am writing I reach the high moment of fusion sought by the mystics, the poets, the lovers, a sense of communion with the universe.”

Writing Reason Moments Universe Poet Lovers Fame Essentials Communion After Death Fusion

Author:Anais Nin

“As a poet or a novelist or a painter, you are pushing yourself all the time, always looking for a new way to approach something, challenging yourself and never, never trying to write the same book twice.”

Way Writing Trying Book Challenges Poet Approach Painter Novelists Pushing New Ways Push Yourself Challenge Yourself

Book:Conversations with Paul Auster

Source: Conversations with Paul Auster

“I don't think that you can say by any stretch of the imagination that all Wisconsin or Brooklyn-based poets write in a particular way. Similar sensibilities can spring up next to each other in the flower bed, or across oceans.”

Thinking Way Writing Next Imagination Particular Poet Flower Bed Ocean Spring Sensibility Brooklyn Wisconsin

Author:Matthea Harvey

“There's this pet phrase about writing that is bandied around particularly in workshops about "finding your own voice as a poet", which I suppose means that you come out from under the direct influence of other poets and have perhaps found a way to combine those influences so that it appears to be your own voice.”

Way Writing Mean Found Voice Influence Poet Findings Direct Phrases Pet Workshops

Author:Billy Collins

“I started moving away from poets like Wallace Stevens and Hart Crane and started reading poets like, again, Karl Shapiro, Howard Nemerov, Philip Larkin, and the British poets who were imported through that important anthology put together by Alvarez - and those would include Thom Gunn and Ted Hughes. And I think these poets gave me assurance that there were other ways to write besides the rather involuted style of high modernism whose high priests were Pound, Eliot and Stevens, and Crane perhaps.”

Thinking Way Writing Important Together Moving Reading Style Poet British Pounds Priests Assurance Modernism Anthology Philip Moving Away Eliot Hart Cranes

Author:Billy Collins

“I mainly wanted non-english writing poets, because I loved the idea that I was translating translations.”

Writing Ideas Wanted Poet Translate Translations English Writing

Author:Simone Muench

“I don't write very much about penises. More than some poets but not perhaps as much as I should.”

Should Writing Poet

Author:Rachel Zucker

“That name, SUN BEAR, just sounds like an ideogram to me. Super resonant. By the way, this all might be related to Tomaž Šalamun's famous line, "Every true poet is a monster." Or why Richard Hugo writes that the imagination is a cynic. T”

Way Writing Might Names Sound Imagination Lines Sun Poet Bears Monsters Related Cynic Very True

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“There is all this stuff about how sensitive poets are and how in touch with feelings, etc. they are, but really all we care about is language. At least in the initial stages of the process of writing the poem, though later other things start to come in, and a really good poem usually needs something more than just an interest in the material of language to mean anything to a reader.”

Needs Writing Mean Feelings Care Language Stuff Process Interest Stage Poet Materials Reader Sensitive Etc Initials

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“I've always been more than a little mystified by poets who seem to think talking to people as directly as possible is a bad thing. I mean, I don't want to set up a straw man here: I understand that for many poets - and for me, at times - writing truly means writing in a way that is difficult, simply because the poem is trying to grasp for something elusive. So the difficulty of the poem is just unavoidable, and not in any way artificially imposed. So "as possible" is the key part of the phrase above, I suppose.”

People Thinking Men Way Want Writing Trying Mean Littles Seems Difficult Talking Poet Keys Difficulty Phrases Bad Things Elusive Straws

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“I had hoped to be a poet, and for a long time I tried to write poetry. My first published pieces were poems.”

Writing Firsts Long Pieces Poet Long Time

Author:Norman Lock

“What I'm trying to say is: it gets boring when nothing meaningful is discussed about it. It's the same thing when a woman poet writes about suffering - it's a "woman's tendency to depression and grief." It's not a human, universal tackling of something that exists in all of us. It's suddenly a "woman issue."”

Writing Trying Humans Suffering Grief Issues Poet Universal Boring Meaningful Tendencies Tackling

Author:Fady Joudah

“Actually, my first literary heroes were the Romantic poets, so I began to get serious by writing poems. I have notebooks full of them that I cherish but am afraid to look at.”

Writing Firsts Looks Serious Poet Hero Cherish Notebook Writing Poems Romantic Poet

Author:John Dufresne

“The "truth" is the poem itself. Just because someone writes a poem about a feeling she has does not mean that the feeling will stay forever. The truth of the emotion of the poem remains, even if the particular truth of the poet changes.”

Ifs Writing Mean Doe Feelings Emotion Forever Particular Poet Truth Is Remains

Author:Denise Duhamel

“I started out as a poet who primarily wanted to write about image and moment. Over the years I've been trying to teach myself how to do plot and scene. My first story collection had the most issues with the plotlessness, and when I was writing my second collection I was teaching myself how to make things happen.”

Writing Trying Years Firsts Moments Stories Happens Wanted Teach Issues Teaching Poet Scene Things Happen Collections Plot Make Things Happen

Author:Dan Chaon

“I look at the great poets of the Soviet Union, like Anna Akhmatova, who endured far worse then anything we've seen or hopefully that we will ever see. If they could keep writing and keep a voice alive, keep people hopeful through their poetry, then I would be ashamed to stop and to give in. It would be really self-indulgent, unacceptable, and inexcusable to walk away from it.”

People Ifs Giving Writing Looks Self Would Be Voice Walks Alive Poet Unions Hopefully Ashamed Hopeful Soviet Soviet Union Anna Great Poet Self Indulgent

Author:Sara Paretsky

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