You litter poems with too much learning when you're younger. — Tony Harrison Learning Copy Share Image
I've realised darkness and light are inter-dependent, just as death is an enhancer of life. — Tony Harrison Darkness Copy Share Image
Theatre has to be theatrical. It has to draw attention to itself, like poetry. — Tony Harrison Actor Copy Share Image
I hate being called poet/dramatist/translator/director. 'Poet' covers it all for me. — Tony Harrison Being Copy Share Image
I spent a lot of time on recce. It is a kind of creative chaos, but I like the sense of creative… — Tony Harrison Chaos Copy Share Image
The ones we choose to love become our anchorwhen the hawser of the blood-tie's hacked, or frays. — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
I've always had the wish, the need, and the obsession to become a public poet. — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
Not becoming 'something' scares me the most. I just want to be remembered for something great. — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
I need to look back on my poetic ventures, make sense of them as a whole, and move forward... and to experiment… — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
Statues are one of the ways I try to test the traditions of European culture against the most modern destructive forces. I… — Tony Harrison Culture Copy Share Image
I used to be scared of the Candyman. You'd say his name three times in the mirror and then he'd come get… — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
“Smokers of the world unite! On t'count o' three, all light up, right? 1-2-3... You've all been cowed. I've changed the law… — Tony Harrison Smokers Copy Share Image
A lot of my activity in the theatre, and even in writing poems, was a kind of retrospective aggro on the English… — Tony Harrison English teacher Copy Share Image
Coming from a very inarticulate family made me try to speak for those who can't express themselves and created a need for… — Tony Harrison Family Copy Share Image
I think poems belong as much in the news pages as the literary pages. A lot of people throw aside the literary… — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
For me, there is a paradox in poetry, which is like the paradox in tragedy. You have the most terrible subject, but… — Tony Harrison Heart Copy Share Image
I think it's the tendency to want to create gods and monotheistic absolutes and absolute certainties that is the continual temptation in… — Tony Harrison God Copy Share Image
You get early inoculation against the idea of success if you're a poet. When I published my first collection of sonnets, I… — Tony Harrison Fame Copy Share Image
My favorite memories were never about candy or anything like that. When I got to be a teenager, my friends and I… — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
“Long Distance II Though my mother was already two years dead Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas, put hot water… — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
It is always better to write for the whole of society than for the poetry-reading public. — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
It's been an obsession with me from childhood, the horrors of the twentieth century. — Tony Harrison Childhood Copy Share Image
The ear will surrender even at those times when the eye wants to close, when the eye doesn't want to watch. — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
Why shouldn't poetry address what happened yesterday and be published in the newspaper? — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
Yes, I've got inwardness and tenderness, but I also get angry and vituperative, and you have to honour that as well. — Tony Harrison Angry Copy Share Image
'Night Mail' belongs quintessentially to the age of steam. It is impossible to simply go with the idea of remaking it. — Tony Harrison Age Copy Share Image
I really admire the great Japanese artists who could change their name three times in a lifetime. You could get rid of… — Tony Harrison Copy Share Image
I have always disliked the idea of an arts ghetto in which poetry is kept on a life-support system. — Tony Harrison Art Copy Share Image
Poetry is all I write, whether for books or readings or for the National Theatre or for the opera house and concert… — Tony Harrison Books Copy Share Image
