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

Poetry,

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

Exlpore more Poetry quotes

"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

"I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony."

Mark Strand, American Poet

Poetry,

"But I don't think that poetry is a good, to use a contemporary word, venue, for current events."

Diane Wakoski, American Poet

Poetry, Events, Word

"A great many people seem to think writing poetry is worthwhile, even though it pays next to nothing and is not as widely read as it should be."

Mark Strand, American Poet

Poetry, People, Nothing, Writing

"In the grueling light that passed for day..."

Cormac McCarthy, American Writer

Poetry, Light, Life, Description

"In a real poem a sound does not swallow a letter, but a letter swallows a sound."

Dejan Stojanovic, Serbian Philosopher

Poetry, Sound, Art, Expression, Creativity

"Hence the sterile, uninspiring futility of a great many theoretical discussions of ethics, and the resentment which many people feel towards such discussions: moral principles remain in their minds as floating abstractions, offering them a goal they cannot grasp and demanding that they reshape their souls in its image, thus leaving them with a burden of undefinable moral guilt."

Ayn Rand, Russian Writer

Poetry, Nature, Beauty, Love, Stars

"And at least in poetry you should feel free to lie. That is, not to lie, but to imagine what you want, to follow the direction of the poem."

Mark Strand, American Poet

Poetry, Lie, Direction, Want

Explore more quotes by Roger McGough

"People can put their best poems straight onto the web."

People

"I wish the word whimsical wasn't used now."

Now

"Yes, you can feel very alone as a poet and you sometimes think, is it worth it? Is it worth carrying on? But because there were other poets, you became part of a scene. Even though they were very different writers, it made it easier because you were together."

Poet

"You will put on a dress of guilt and shoes with broken high ideals."

Dress

"If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there - not because you've done a comedy performance but because you're talking about your father dying or having young children, things that touch your soul."

Reading

"If I decide to be indecisive, that's my decision."

Decision-Making

"I'm terrified of switching the computer on because there are so many poems."

Computer

"We shouldn't have got married, really. Shouldn't have got married. Too young. Not ready for it."

Reading

"I was put off by people at school - my cabbage wasn't as good as other people's, you know, so that put me off."

People

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

Poetry