Best Writing Poetry Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“Just getting something to work usually means writing reams of code fast, like a Stephen King novel, but making it maintainable and high-quality code that really expresses the ideas well, is like writing poetry. Art is taking away.”

Writing Wells Mean Art Ideas Quality Novel Kings Art Is Code High Quality Writing Poetry

Author:Erik Naggum

“I began writing poetry when I was about 10. Bad poetry, but you start with bad poetry.”

Writing Writing Poetry

Author:Jonas Mekas

“One good way to start writing poetry is to read all kinds of poetry: not just in order to imitate but to fill up your head with it, to absorb it, to make poetry an essential part of how you view the world.”

World Way Writing Kind Order Views Essentials All Kinds Poetry Is Good Way Writing Poetry

Author:Valerie Worth

“It's hot tonight and half the neighborhood is drunk. the other half is dead. if I have any advice about writing poetry it's - don't. I'm going to send out for some fried chicken.”

Ifs Writing Half Advice Hot Drunk Tonight Neighborhood Chickens Other Half Writing Poetry Fried Chicken

Author:Charles Bukowski

“I don't want to write poems that are just really clear about how I'm aware of all the traps involved in writing poetry; I don't want to write fiction that's about the irresponsibility of writing fiction and I've thrown out a lot of writing that I think was ultimately tainted by that kind of self-awareness.”

Thinking Want Writing Kind Self Fiction Clear Awareness Involved Self Awareness Thrown Traps Writing Fiction Writing Poetry Tainted Irresponsibility

Author:Ben Lerner

“I like the way words go together and I like the gamesmanship of writing poetry. It is such a challenge.”

Way Writing Together Challenges Writing Poetry

Author:Jeffery Deaver

“People have a very limited idea of what being creative is - playing the guitar or the flute or writing poetry - so people go on writing rubbish in the name of poetry. You have to find out what you can do and what you cannot do. Everybody cannot do everything. You have to search and find your destiny. You have to grope in the dark, I know. It is not very clear-cut what your destiny is, but that's how life is. And it is good that one has to search for it - in the very search, something grows.”

People Knows Writing Ideas Life Is Names Grows Can Do Dark Destiny Creative Clear Cutting Goes On Guitar Be Creative Our Destiny Your Destiny Rubbish Writing Poetry Flutes

Author:Rajneesh

“When I am writing fiction, I believe I am much better organized, more methodical - one has to be when writing a novel. Writing poetry is a state of free float.”

Writing Believe States I Believe Fiction Novel Organized Poetry Is Floats Novel Writing Writing Fiction Writing Poetry Methodical

Book:Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

Source: Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood

“At times of crisis or distress, it's poems that people turn to. (Poetry) still has a power to speak to people's feelings, maybe in a way that fiction, because it works in a longer way, can't. There's a little bit of your brain that mourns and grieves that you're not writing poetry, but actually as long as I'm writing something, I'm happy.”

People Way Writing Littles Long Stills Feelings Turns Speak Bits Brain Fiction Little Bit Crisis Grieving Distress Mourn Writing Poetry Times Of Crisis

Author:Blake Morrison

“Writing poetry is the only form of literary labour which gives me entire satisfaction.”

Giving Writing Form Give Me Satisfaction Labour Poetry Is Writing Poetry

Author:Peter Porter

“...after a night spent writing poetry, one is almost happy to hear the milkman at the door.”

Writing Night Doors Writing Poetry Milkman

Author:Wallace Stevens

“I do many kinds of work, and if you forbid me from binding books, from gardening, from writing poetry, from practicing walking meditation, from teaching children, I will be very unhappy. To me, work is pleasant. Pleasant or unpleaseant depends on our way of looking.”

Ifs Way Writing Kind Children Book Meditation Teaching Depends Walking Unhappy Pleasant Gardening Binding Teaching Children Writing Poetry Walking Meditation

Book:Thich Nhat Hanh: Essential Writings

Source: Thich Nhat Hanh: Essential Writings

“I wanted to be a composer for a while, and for a while, and maybe still, I found writing music much easier than writing poetry. So maybe my brain clings to it.”

Writing Stills Wanted Found Brain Easier Composer Writing Poetry Writing Music

Author:Shane McCrae

“Poems are ways of saying you clearly remember the day of your death and your tomb. When I am writing poetry, I relive my days when a woman inside me dies many times.”

Way Writing Remember Dies Tombs Writing Poetry

Author:Kim Hyesoon

“I always loved singing and writing poetry. I always loved music, and I’ve loved writing my whole life. When I put them together it was probably in my early 20s, where I put words to music for the first time.”

Writing Firsts Whole Together Singing First Time Whole Life Writing Poetry Early 20s

Author:Lisa Marie Presley

“I approach writing a poem in a much different state than when I am writing prose. It's almost as if I were working in a different language when I'm writing poetry. The words - what they are and what they can become - the possibilities of the words are vastly expanded for me when I'm writing a poem.”

Ifs Writing Different States Language Possibility Approach Prose Writing Poetry Different Languages

Author:Pattiann Rogers

“I wrote poetry in middle school and high school and even through college. It was bad. I just don't think I'm very good at writing poetry. I mean, the distillation, I think, is hard for me, but I love poetry.”

Thinking Writing Mean Hard School Middle College High School Very Good Love Poetry Middle School Writing Poetry Distillation

Author:Jesmyn Ward

“I've been writing songs since I was like six or seven. I've been writing poetry and short stories and stuff, but my first serious, serious song, I wrote when I was fourteen.”

Writing Firsts Stories Song Stuff Serious Six Seven Short Story Writing Songs Fourteen Writing Poetry

Author:Gabrielle Aplin

“I've always just liked writing poetry, but it's much later that I've discovered that there's this whole poetry world out there, that you almost have to be accepted into, like this little club.”

World Writing Littles Whole Clubs Accepted Writing Poetry

Author:Victoria Chang

“Nonfiction ties your hands a bit, and just like writing poetry in rhyme, it can force you to make more brutal decisions in terms of word choice, plot, etc.”

Writing Hands Choices Force Bits Term Decision Ties Etc Plot Nonfiction Brutal Rhyme Writing Poetry Word Choice

Author:Emily Susan Rapp

“Even though novels were the love of my life, I started off writing poetry. I think because I had a knack for image and lyricism, even though I didn't really have anything to write about, or I didn't know what to write about. I could just couple words together that pleased me and so poetry seemed sort of natural.”

Thinking Knows Writing Together Natural Novel Couple Knack Writing Poetry Love Of My Life

Author:Melissa Febos

“I didn't mind writing incoherently, up until about 1980, occasionally. But after that, I decided, might as well be articulate. And I found, though, that writing poetry affected my prose to the point where I never again wrote in one draft, and my prose just took longer and longer and longer. It took longer and longer to come up with an acceptable text. And that's probably one of the reasons that my output has slowed down.”

Writing Mind Wells Reason Might Found Decided Come Up Prose Affected Acceptable Output Writing Poetry

Author:Richard Meltzer

“I mean, what's thematic? How to put it? Going back to, like, 1980, when I started writing poetry. Language itself became an issue. I'd even think about font as an aspect of text, you know, how something looks on a page. A lot of this is the product of a very solitary existence, it's like, language, I mean, you know. A lot of time spent alone in the creation of all of this stuff.”

Thinking Knows Writing Looks Mean Language Stuff Existence Know How Issues Creation Products Pages Aspect Solitary Writing Poetry Time Spent Fonts Thematic

Author:Richard Meltzer

“Now, the process of writing poetry is very messy. Not systematic, never quite the same”

Writing Process Poetry Is Never Quit Messy Systematic Writing Poetry

Author:Edward Hirsch

“The mysterious thing about writing poetry is that when you're - when things are going poorly, when you're not thinking well, even making two sentences together is extremely hard and I just can't make the connections.”

Thinking Writing Wells Two Hard Together Connections Sentences Mysterious Poetry Is Writing Poetry Mysterious Things

Author:Edward Hirsch

“I think that the dark side of MFA programs is that they're generating more poets than the culture can absorb and there are more people writing poetry than possibly read it or can certainly earn a living around it.”

People Thinking Writing Culture Sides Dark Poet Program Dark Side Writing Poetry

Author:Edward Hirsch

“I think the culture can absorb so many people writing poetry and trying to earn their living in poetry.”

People Thinking Writing Trying Culture Writing Poetry

Author:Edward Hirsch

“I remember writing a song when I was about 15. This is the one I can remember. I know I'd been writing poetry for a long time, since I was about eight, but I remember my first one that I put to chords. I was really trying to be like the psychedelic era Beatles, I was obsessed. All I could think about was Beatles and Hendrix. So I tried to write a psychedelic song, and it was the worst. I couldn't even... If I read it now - I still have the book somewhere - it makes me cringe out loud. It was just about psychedelic stuff.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Writing Trying Firsts Long Stills I Can Book Remember Song Stuff Worst Long Time Eight Eras Loud Obsessed Chords Psychedelic Writing Poetry Hendrix Cringe

Author:Ladyhawke

“Suppose that throughout your childhood you were good with numbers. Other kids used to copy your homework. You figured store discounts faster than your parents. People came to you for help with such things. So you took accounting and eventually became a tax auditor for the IRS. What an embarrassing job, right? You feel you should be writing poetry or doing aviation mechanics or whatever. But then you realize that tax collecting can be a calling too.”

“I started writing poetry because language was how I understood the world. It was a paradigm that made everything matter and in forms that were safe to hold what I felt.”

World Writing Made Matter Form Language Felt Safe Understood Poetry Is Paradigm Writing Poetry

Author:Grace Cavalieri

“I thought to spend my declining years writing poetry and teaching - but that won't pay the Bergdorf's bill. I think I'll move to somewhere life is cheaper.”

Thinking Writing Years Moving Life Is Pay Teaching Bills Cheaper Writing Poetry

Author:Erica Jong

“I think I'm no different to my friends who are doctors or businessmen or architects - we all started watching films of the golden age together. But whether I'm making films or writing poetry or doing photography, it's very much rooted in my sense of unease. And that's really where everything goes back to.”

Thinking Writing Different Age Together Film Photography My Friends Doctors Golden Architect Rooted Businessman Golden Age Writing Poetry

Author:Abbas Kiarostami

“When Rimbaud became a slave trader, he stopped writing poetry.”

Writing Slave Traders Writing Poetry Slave Trade

Author:Chinua Achebe

“Writing poetry is a process of discovery...you can smell the poem before you see it....Like some animal.”

Writing Process Animal Discovery Smell Poetry Is Writing Poetry

Author:Denise Levertov

“I have found myself writing poetry shortly after I retired. Which I hadn't done in forty years.”

Writing Years Done Found Forty Retired Writing Poetry

Author:Frederick Busch

“The judges who awarded the 1980 Commonwealth Poetry Prize to my first collection of poems, Crossing the Peninsula and Other Poems, cited with approval and with no apparent conscious irony my early poem, "No Alarms." The poem was composed probably sometime in 1974 or 1975, and it complained about the impossibility of writing poetry - of being a poet - under the conditions in which I was living then.”

Writing Firsts Conditions Poet Judging Conscious Irony Collections Prize Approval Impossibility Alarms Crossings Commonwealth Writing Poetry Peninsulas

Author:Shirley Geok-lin Lim

“I'm an actress, primarily. I love to write poetry. I've been writing poetry since I was 12 years old.”

Writing Years Actresses Writing Poetry

Author:Masiela Lusha

“Through my former experiences, writing poetry and learning other languages leading up to English I find ways to stitch words together that may seem a bit odd, but somehow, sometimes they do work.”

Way Writing May Sometimes Seems Together Language Bits Former Odd Writing Poetry Stitches

Author:Masiela Lusha

“I wanted to spend all my time writing poetry. But when I had children I couldn't do that anymore.”

Writing Children Wanted My Time Writing Poetry

Author:Robert Bly

“The laureateship [of U.S. Children's Poet] has brought me a couple of appealing contracts, including my first anthology, the 200-poem The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry.Apart from the increased travel, I won't let anything interfere with writing poetry.”

Writing Firsts Children Book Animal Poet Couple Including Contracts Interfere Anthology Writing Poetry National Geographic

Author:J. Patrick Lewis

“I've been transformed by stories, and I think that storytelling is definitely sacred. I take it very seriously because my life has been changed, whether it was a movie, a play, a piece of writing, poetry, a painting.”

Thinking Writing Has Beens Play Stories Pieces Changed Painting Sacred Storytelling Transformed Writing Poetry

Author:Karla Souza

“I was inspired by what students have done in some schools organizing walkouts protesting the lack of funding and that sort of thing. There are opportunities for students to engage in those types of protests - taking to the streets - but there is also writing poetry, writing music, beginning to express themselves, holding forums, educating each other, the whole range.”

Writing Done Whole School Opportunity Streets Students Type Music Is Inspired Range Protest Funding Forums Writing Poetry Writing Music

Author:Michelle Alexander

“I always thought that writing poetry was in itself a political act.”

Writing Political Writing Poetry

Author:John Ashbery

“My goals as an artist have nothing to do with speaking to an audience. I love to have a good time, but when it comes to poetry I'm not really interested in writing poetry that seeks to entertain or operate safely within the mainstream and, to be clear, I'm not disparaging the really phenomenal work that does - it's just not my interest as a poet.”

Writing Artist Goal Interest Audience Poet Good Times Having A Good Time Phenomenal Writing Poetry

Author:Dawn Lundy Martin

“When I am writing poetry, I try to make my mind go a little lazy, to not think too much, as a way of opening up the part of the brain that makes poems. If I'm successful in this part of the process I'm often not. If my mind gets too lazy it will linger in familiar boring territory, it's like my mind can stroke the physical world.”

Thinking World Writing Trying Mind Brain Successful Boring Familiar Lazy Writing Poetry

Author:Dawn Lundy Martin

“When I devoted myself to poetry - and poetry is a very serious medium - I don't think the people that knew me as an individual with that tongue-in-cheek kind of humor...well, it didn't always lend itself to my poetry. When you're writing poetry, it's like working with gold, you can't waste anything. You have to be very economical with each word you're going to select. But when you're writing fiction, you can just go on and on; you can be more playful. My editor's main task is to cut back, not ask for more.”

People Thinking Writing Kind Individual Cutting Serious Gold Poetry Is Select Writing Poetry

Author:Ana Castillo

“The whole process of having to put the thing into the world seems so antithetical to the act of writing. Poetry is slightly easier, because there's less money and fewer people involved. You just let a book of poems trickle out in the world, and it finds its own people. Novels are much harder, and you don't think you should have to do some of the things you're made to do.”

People Thinking World Writing Book Novel Poetry Is Writing Poetry

Author:Nick Laird

“The whole point of writing poetry or fiction is that you get to agonize over whatever it is you want to say, and you finally say it, and you get it as perfect as you can make it. Then you're forced to babble freestyle.”

Writing Perfect Writing Poetry

Author:Nick Laird

“This is going to sound nuts but it took me forever to figure out why I'd stopped writing poetry - I mean, I went about a decade where I wrote very little poetry and I thought it was because I was doing a weekly blog. And then when we moved, I reconfigured my writing desk. The previous one had had very little space to write by hand. And suddenly, the poetry was gushing!”

Writing Mean Forever Moved Writing Poetry

Author:Achy Obejas

“The question does arise if how and why to write poetry in this time. It feels both completely essential and also quite difficult. But that's how writing poetry has felt to me my whole life. Everything seems to have just gotten immensely more mortal and tragic and scary, which makes it hard to concentrate, but also, if harnessed, can provide immense energy for making poems.”

Writing Energy Difficult Scary Whole Life Tragic Writing Poetry

Author:Matthew Zapruder

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