"I think I'm a very good reader of poetry, but obviously, like everybody, I have a set of criteria for reading poems, and I'm not shy about presenting them, so if people ask for my critical response to a poem, I tell them what works and why, and what doesn't work and why."

Reading, Work, Poetry, People, Poems

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"I think I'm a very good reader of poetry, but obviously, like everybody, I have a set of criteria for reading poems, and I'm not shy about presenting them, so if people ask for my critical response to a poem, I tell them what works and why, and what doesn't work and why."

Exlpore more Reading quotes

"She'd obviously read the book many times before, and so she read flawlessly and confidently, and I could hear her smile in the reading of it, and the sound of that smile made me think that maybe I would like novels better if Alaska Young read them to me."

John Green, American Author

Reading, Joy, Novel, Emotion

"Some readers read a book as if it were an instruction manual, expecting to understand everything first time, but of course when you write, you put into every sentence an overflow of meaning, and you create in every sentence as many resonances and double meanings and ambiguities as you can possibly pack in there, so that people can read it again and get something new each time."

Hilary Mantel, British Novelist

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"When you read a book put all of your effort into staying present and focus your energy towards the comprehension of each and every word and how you can apply it into your daily life."

Matthew Donnelly, American Author

Reading, Focus, Presence, Learning

"A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual."

Gloria Steinem, American Activist

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"Read in order to live."

Gustave Flaubert, French Novelist

Reading, Order

"A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading."

C. S. Lewis, British Author

Reading, Man, Sound, Wishes

"No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting."

Mary Wortley Montagu, English Writer

Reading, Entertainment, Pleasure

"When someone tells me to 'just relax,' I wonder why they don't hand me a book?"

Richelle E. Goodrich, American Poet

Reading, Happiness, Today, Wisdom, Truth

"Readers are plentiful: thinkers are rare."

Anthony Burgess, English Novelist

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"Reading sparks writing."

A. D. Posey, American Poet

Reading, Writing, Inspirational, Books

Explore more quotes by Diane Wakoski

"American poetry, like American painting, is always personal with an emphasis on the individuality of the poet."

Poetry

"Distinctly American poetry is usually written in the context of one's geographic landscape, sometimes out of one's cultural myths, and often with reference to gender and race or ethnic origins."

Poetry

"My poems are almost all written as Diane. I don't have any problems with that, and if other women choose to identify with this, I think that's terrific."

Woman

"American poets celebrate their bodies, very specifically, as Whitman did."

Cultural

"I'm passing on a tradition of which I am part. There's a long line of poets who went before me, and I'm another one, and I'm hoping to pass that on to other younger, or newer, poets than myself."

Poet

"I think that great poetry is the most interesting and complex use of the poet's language at that point in history, and so it's even more exciting when you read a poet like Yeats, almost 100 years old now, and you think that perhaps no one can really top that."

Poetry

"PC stuff just lowers the general acceptance of good work and replaces it with bogus poetry that celebrates values that in themselves are probably quite worthy."

Poetry

"I do not read newspapers. I do not watch television. I am not interested in current events, although I will occasionally discuss them if other people want to discuss them."

People

"I think one of the things that language poets are very involved with is getting away from conventional ideas of beauty, because those ideas contain a certain attitude toward women, certain attitudes toward sex, certain attitudes toward race, etc."

Attitude

"I'm perfectly happy when I look out at an audience and it's all women. I always think it's kind of odd, but then, more women than men, I think, read and write poetry."

Poetry