I try to be specific. One thought at a time. Clear. Articulate. And above all, memorable, if you can be. You'd like… — Clive James Copy Share Image
Writing is a performance art for me. They're very closely aligned, writing and performing. But I'm a writer, not a performer. — Clive James Copy Share Image
I work on the assumption, or let it be the fear, that the reader will stop reading if I stop being interesting. — Clive James Copy Share Image
Writers quite often starve. And I'm mainly just writing critical prose and poetry, that's a formula for starvation. — Clive James Copy Share Image
Reading and writing... are exciting. The most exciting things I can think of. And now, as I reflect... I have to say… — Clive James Copy Share Image
This quality becomes important at a time when almost everyone is a poet. And as I said, we live in an age… — Clive James Copy Share Image
Humphrey Searle writes music that sounds like the theme from 'Star Wars' played backwards through a washing machine. — Clive James Copy Share Image
Little books are the things to write at my age, I've decided. Avoid the big ones, go for the little ones. — Clive James Copy Share Image
“And every writer cherishes the dream of setting the young on fire, even if only by a cigarette butt tossed casually over… — Clive James Copy Share Image
Almost 70 years have gone by, and I've still got that feeling when I write... Writing, for me, is still it. It… — Clive James Copy Share Image
The great thing about living until you get a bit older if you are a writer, and especially a poet, is that… — Clive James Copy Share Image
It's a big thing to call yourself a poet. All I can say is that I have always written poems. I don't… — Clive James Copy Share Image
What is Camille Paglia doing, writing that an actress as gifted as Anne Heche has the mental depth of a pancake? How… — Clive James Copy Share Image
People should be stopped from writing poetry. There's far too much of it. And if they're any good, they'll go ahead anyways. — Clive James Copy Share Image
My wife spoke perfect Italian and she was very beautiful and very suave Italian men were crowding around her, talking all the time and… — Clive James Copy Share
The streets, at least in this part of town, seemed impossibly clean in comparison to London. The public telephones were unvandalised. For a London… — Clive James Copy Share
In London there was no home cooking worthy of the name. When you were in funds you ate out. But only the people whose… — Clive James Copy Share
Generally it is our failures that civilize us. Triumph confirms us in our habits. — Clive James Copy Share
I try to be specific. One thought at a time. Clear. Articulate. And above all, memorable, if you can be. You'd like to write… — Clive James Copy Share
Pound had argued - and Eliot had helped him prove - that a poem could be sustained by memorable moments. Olson proved that it… — Clive James Copy Share
One way or another, all the poets of the thirties and forties reacted to Auden, either by rejecting him or trying to absorb him. — Clive James Copy Share
Little books are the things to write at my age, I've decided. Avoid the big ones, go for the little ones. — Clive James Copy Share
“Too many of my friends are dead, and others wrecked By various diseases of the intellect Or failing body. How am I still upright?… — clive james Copy Share
“Rilke used to say that no poet would mind going to gaol, since he would at least have time to explore the treasure house… — Clive James Copy Share
The thing about making a documentary in Las Vegas is there isn't much to film apart from other people making documentaries about Las Vegas. — Clive James Copy Share
