"As to whether a poem has been written by a great poet or not, this is important only to historians of literature. Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that I have written a beautiful line; let us take this as a working hypothesis. Once I have written it, that linedoes me no good, because, as I've already said, that line came to me from the Holy Ghost, from the subliminal self, or perhaps from some other writer. I often find I am merely quoting something I read some time ago, and then that becomes a rediscovering. Perhaps it is better that a poet should be nameless."

Poetry, Authorship, Creativity, Humility, Inspirational

38

Create Your Own Wallpaper

Standard

Customized

"As to whether a poem has been written by a great poet or not, this is important only to historians of literature. Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that I have written a beautiful line; let us take this as a working hypothesis. Once I have written it, that linedoes me no good, because, as I've already said, that line came to me from the Holy Ghost, from the subliminal self, or perhaps from some other writer. I often find I am merely quoting something I read some time ago, and then that becomes a rediscovering. Perhaps it is better that a poet should be nameless."

Exlpore more Poetry quotes

"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry."

Emily Dickinson, American Poet

Poetry, Body, Fire

"Poetry and consumption are the most flattering of diseases."

William Shenstone, English Poet

Poetry,

"Whereas with poetry no one has to show anybody really, and you don't have to tell anyone you're doing it."

Roger McGough, British Poet

Poetry,

"The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That's what poetry does."

Allen Ginsberg, American Poet

Poetry, Awareness, World

"Poetry, even when apparently most fantastic, is always a revolt against artifice, a revolt, in a sense, against actuality."

James Joyce, Irish Novelist

Poetry, Sense

"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, American Soldier

Poetry, Age, People, Perceptions

"I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predicted that."

Robert Morgan, American Soldier

Poetry, Fiction, Past

"Writing poetry makes you intensely conscious of how words sound, both aloud and inside the head of the reader. You learn the weight of words and how they sound to the ear."

Helen Dunmore, British Poet

Poetry, Sound, Weight, Words

"The artistic methods of poetry, painting, photography, and writing share certain commonalities of deep composition: spirit, rhythm, thought, and scenery."

Kilroy J. Oldster, American Author

Poetry, Art, Painting, Photography

"You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don't realize it."

Sherman Alexie, American Writer

Poetry, Language, Expression, Awareness

Explore more quotes by Jorge Luis Borges

"Poets, like the blind, can see in the dark."

Art

"The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb."

Man

"Time forks perpetually toward innumerable futures. In one of them I am your enemy."

Speculation

"Tearing money is an impiety, like throwing away bread."

Ethics

"I came to abominate my body, I came to sense that two eyes, two hands, two lungs are as monstrous as two faces."

Self-Image

"Historical truth, for him, is not what has happened; it is what we judge to have happened."

History

"To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely."

Religion

"All our lives we postpone everything that can be postponed; perhaps we all have the certainty, deep inside, that we are immortal and sooner or later every man will do everything, know all there is to know."

Philosophy

"Writing is nothing more than a guided dream."

Dream

"The thought came over me that never would one full and absolute moment, containing all the others, justify my life, that all of my instants would be provisional phases, annihilators of the past turned to face the future, and that beyond the episodic, the present, the circumstantial, we were nobody."

Philosophy