"All the modern verse plays, they're terrible; they're mostly about the poetry. It's more important that the play is first."

Poetry, First, Play

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"All the modern verse plays, they're terrible; they're mostly about the poetry. It's more important that the play is first."

Exlpore more Poetry quotes

"But at the beginning it was clear to me that concrete poetry was peculiarly suited for using in public settings. This was my idea, but of course I never really much got the chance to do it."

Ian Hamilton Finlay, Scottish Poet

Poetry, Idea, Beginning, Chance

"I get a little poetic sometimes. The moonlight does that to me."

Julie Kagawa, American Author

Poetry, Emotion, Truth, Observation

"And here, in thought, to thee-In thought that can alone, Ascend thy empire and so be A partner of thy throne, By winged Fantasy, My embassy is given, Till secrecy shall knowledge be In the environs of Heaven."

Edgar Allan Poe, American Poet

Poetry, Imagination, Fantasy, Creativity, Thought

"None but a poet can write a tragedy. For tragedy is nothing less than pain transmuted into exaltation by the alchemy of poetry."

Edith Hamilton, American Writer

Poetry, Alchemy, Nothing, Pain

"Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs."

W. H. Auden, English Poet

Poetry, Dream, Literature, Creativity

"My second thoughts condemnAnd wonder how I dareTo look you in the eye.What right have I to swearEven at one a.m.To love you till I die?Earth meets too many crimesFor fibs to interest her;If I can give my word,Forgiveness can recurAny number of timesIn Time. Which is absurd.Tempus fugit. Quite.So finish up your drink.All flesh is grass. It is. But who on earth can thinkWith heavy heart or lightOf what will come of this?"

W. H. Auden, English Poet

Poetry, Love, Time, Forgiveness, Doubt

"That men, who might have tower'd in the vanOf all the congregated world, to fanAnd winnow from the coming step of timeAll chaff of custom, wipe away all slimeLeft by men-slugs and human serpentry,Have been content to let occasion die,Whilst they did sleep in love's Elysium."

John Keats, English Poet

Poetry, Potential, Failure, Time, Neglect

"My heart ist melting, I love you, Drops of Gold."

Sir Kristian Goldmund Aumann, British Musician

Poetry, Love, Emotion, Heart

"True poetry is the fragrance of the heart in the house of peace."

Sir Kristian Goldmund Aumann, British Musician

Poetry, Heart, Peace, Calm

"The drama is complete poetry. The ode and the epic contain it only in germ; it contains both of them in a state of high development, and epitomizes both."

Victor Hugo, French Author

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Explore more quotes by Denis Johnson

"I didn't finish the stories until we went to the Philippines and I got malaria. I couldn't work and I didn't have any money, but I had seven stories. So I wrote three or four more."

Work

"I really enjoy writing novels. It's like the ocean. You can just build a boat and take off."

Writing

"I think it's silly for anyone to think you could write under the influence, but if they'd like to think that, I'd like to keep the legend alive. Maybe I was under the influence when I wrote Jesus' Son and I just didn't know it."

Family

"You're under pressure when you produce facts. You're working with facts in journalism, but you're under all kinds of formal constraints; there are expectations."

Expectation

"In the plays - that's where I go crazy. But my prose has a much lighter touch; it's not trying to thrill with language, just to be more truthful. I'm not concerned with the accuracy of anything. We don't get to the truth of anything with facts."

Truth

"What's funny about Jesus' Son is that I never even wrote that book, I just wrote it down. I would tell these stories and people would say, You should write these things down."

Fun

"If you take a lie and allow your desire for the truth, you'll end up with some truth - not fact, but something that gets you closer to the truth. That's what we want. When we go to a play, we need to be assured that the experience we're having."

Experience

"If you write fiction, you're by yourself. There are certain advantages to that in that you don't have to explain anything to anybody. But when you get in with others who share the loneliness of the whole enterprise, you're not lonely anymore."

Fiction

"When I'm writing for Esquire, my conscious thought is, I'm not writing for American Scholar."

Thought

"I'd met a woman and I got married, but the money ran out right away. I hadn't had a job for seven months, and it just came over me that I was never going to work again. It hit me."

Money