Many of my poems try to use a comic element to reach a place that isn't comic at all. The comic element… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
One writes a poem when one is so taken up by an emotional concept that one is unable to remain silent. — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
There's a Welsh poet, R.S. Thomas. He was a very crotchety, strange man, but his poems are wonderful. He was nominated for… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
Louise Gluck, C.K. Williams, Thomas Lux. A lot of the poets that I like are the ones that influenced me as a… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
Baudelaire's L'Héautontimorouménos was long seen to be a sexual sadomasochistic poem, it is now generally accepted that the poem is about writing… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
I'm reading a manuscript by Rodney Jones, "Village Prodigies",it's one of the best contemporary poetry books I've ever read ever. — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
A poem is a window that hangs between two or more human beings who otherwise live in darkened rooms. — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
Reading a good poem can give me a far bigger kick than a novel. But it's not something I can keep doing.… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
I can't believe there is a poet who hasn't eagerly put down a word one day, only to erase it the next… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
For the past thirty years or so, much American poetry has been marked by an earnestness that rejects the comic. This has… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
My poems always begin with a metaphor, but my way into the metaphor may be a word, an image, even a sound.… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
When a philosopher, scientist, or psychologist discusses the discrepancy between the actual and the ideal, he or she attempts to convince us… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share Image
“Isn't that why you want to shoot yourself? To make a protest against change?” — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
He thinks of that ocean house and wishes he were back in his former life or that one could take one moment and remain… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
My wife's dying upstairs and I can't do anything about it. I look in her face and I see the memories there. I see… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
Each thing I do, I rush through so I can do something else. In such a way do the days pass---a blend of stock… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
“A work of art gives testimony to what it is to be a human being. It bears witness, it extracts meaning. A work of… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
“It was not that she felt any allegiance to the truth. God knows she had cheated on too many men for the truth to… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
I'm reading "The Sunset of a Splendid Century" by W.H. Lewis. He was C.S. Lewis's brother. He wrote two books about the French court… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
“Each thing I do I rush through so I can do something else.. in such a way do the days pass.. I see all… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
It was as if pain were a room he had entered and the door had been locked behind him. — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
Many of my poems try to use a comic element to reach a place that isn't comic at all. The comic element works as… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
I majored in English in college and that was my major in graduate school before switching to creative writing. I read a lot of… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
Sometimes someone will tell me about an author I've never heard of before and that will send me to that person. That's how I… — Stephen Dobyns Copy Share
