A grain of poetry suffices to season a century. Jose Marti on poetry
I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again. Wislawa Szymborska on poetry
Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry. Wislawa Szymborska on poetry
Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation. Wislawa Szymborska on poetry
Unfortunately, poetry is not born in noise, in crowds, or on a bus. There have to be four walls and the certainty that the telephone will not ring. That's what writing is all about. Wislawa Szymborska on poetry
In the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone's existence in this world. Wislawa Szymborska on poetry
Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation. Wislawa Szymborska on poetry
There is one type of ideal woman very seldom described in poetry - the old maid, the woman whom sorrow or misfortune prevents from fulfilling her natural destiny. Lafcadio Hearn on poetry
I was trained as an actress. But I wasn't a very convincing actress, so I started doing punk poetry and then fell into doing stand-up. Jenny Eclair on poetry
I've always had a love for poetry and when I got signed to a record label I thought, 'How odd that I'm doing a record before a book of poetry,' Jewel on poetry
I think when kids just see well-crafted poetry, it's just obtuse to them. It's hard to relate to. Jewel on poetry
A public expectation, it has to be said, not of poetry as such but of political positions variously approvable by mutually disapproving groups. Seamus Heaney on poetry
Poetry has the virtue of being able to say twice as much as prose in half the time, and the drawback, if you do not give it your full attention, of seeming to say half as much in twice the time. Christopher Fry on poetry
On July 26, 1916, I announced to all my friends in America that from now on I resolved to write no more poems in the classical language, and to begin my experiments in writing poetry in the so-called vulgar tongue of the people. Hu Shih on poetry
There may be more poetry than justice in poetic justice. George Will on poetry
Translation is an interestingly different way to be involved both with poetry and with the language that I've found myself living in much of the time. I think the two feed each other. Marilyn Hacker on poetry
Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket you put your life into it and make something out of that. Mary Oliver on poetry
Most poetry in the modern age has retreated to the private sphere, turning its back on the political realm. Terry Eagleton on poetry
Poetry is the most subtle of the literary arts, and students grow more ingenious by the year at avoiding it. If they can nip around Milton, duck under Blake and collapse gratefully into the arms of Jane Austen, a lot of them will. Terry Eagleton on poetry
I think that it's more likely that in my 60s and 70s I will be writing poetry rather than fiction. Robert Morgan on poetry