Part of what we love about poetry is the fact that it seems ancient, that it has an authority of ancient language and ancient form, and that it's timeless, that it reaches back. Robert Morgan on poetry
The young people have MTV and rock and roll. Why would they go to read poetry? Poetry belongs to the Stone Age. It awakens in us perceptions that go back to those times. Robert Morgan on poetry
I learned to impersonate the kind of person that talks about poetry. It comes from teaching, I think. Robert Morgan on poetry
Science is for those who learn, poetry is for those who know. Joseph Roux on poetry
Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes. Joseph Roux on poetry
I write all the time - I write poetry, I love to write. Colin Quinn on poetry
But one does not make living writing poetry unless you're a professor, and one frankly doesn't get a lot of girls as a poet. Jeffery Deaver on poetry
With Shakespeare and poetry, a new world was born. New dreams, new desires, a self consciousness was born. I desired to know to know myself in terms of the new standards set by these books. Peter Abrahams on poetry
I'm not a writer. I think I can write short stories and poetry, but film writing, brilliant film writing, is a talent - you can't just do it like that. Samantha Morton on poetry
It's like I understand images and some people understand poetry. Samantha Morton on poetry
I have piles of poetry books in the bathroom, on the stairs, everywhere. The only way to write poetry is to read it. Carol Ann Duffy on poetry
You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose. Mario Cuomo on poetry
Those who say we should dismantle the role of Poet Laureate altogether, the trick they miss is that being called this thing, with the weight of tradition behind it, and with the association of the Royal family, does allow you to have conversations and to open doors, and wallets, for the good of poetry in a way that nothing else would allow. Andrew Motion on poetry
Poetry is at the centre of my life, too, emotionally speaking, and intellectually speaking - it's just that I'm one of those people who enjoy doing other stuff as well. Andrew Motion on poetry
I'm not precisely saying that a really good board meeting at the MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives Coucil) makes me want to go and write poetry, but there is a pleasure in doing that sort of thing well. Andrew Motion on poetry
In a general way, I want to be a kind of flag-waver, bunting hanger-up, drum-beater, you name it, for poetry. Andrew Motion on poetry
Thanks partly to the kind of poets that we now have and partly to funding, there's been a gigantic shift in the way poetry is perceived... Poems on the Underground, poets in schools, football clubs, zoos. Andrew Motion on poetry
I wanted to reimagine the role, in a way that was respectful of its traditional responsibilities but made them part of a wider pattern of poetry about national incidents, events, preoccupations and to spend a great deal of time going to schools trying to demystify poetry. Andrew Motion on poetry
More people are reading poetry now than at any time in the history of the human race. Andrew Motion on poetry