[on the Irish] A race of poets and wordsmiths, my ass.

The Irish, as a race, have the oral tradition in their blood. A direct question to them is an anathema, but in other cases,…

— P. L. Travers

I am Irish by race but the English have condemned me to talk the language of Shakespeare.

— Oscar Wilde

The Irish are the one race for which psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever... because they already live in a dream world.

— Sigmund Freud

No, men and women of the Irish race, we shall not fight for England. We shall fight for the destruction of the British Empire…

— James Larkin

“Fookin' Irish, they're a race of political masochists, they love their fookin' chiefs and princes an' a strong hand belting. It's like the man…

— Gwyneth Jones

“Irish improves a poet.”

— Sina Queyras

Neither men, nor gods, nor booksellers' shelves permit ordinary poets to exist. [Lat., Mediocribus esse poetis Non homines, non di, non concessere columnae.]

— Horace

There were so many Pittsburgh poets in my hallway that if, at that instant, a meteorite had come smashing through my roof, there would…

— Michael Chabon

“When one does something, one must do it wholly and well. Those bastard existences where you sell suet all day and write poetry at…

— Gustave Flaubert

Most of the more celebrated names among African-American authors, poets, and artists are known to the world because of their association with specific cultural…

— Aberjhani

“Lyric poets are always corrupting the young, making them choke in self-pity and indulge in reverie. Dirty sex and direspect for authority is what…

— Charles Simic

“[poems are] crystals deposited after the effervescent contact of the spirit with reality. (cristaux deposes apres l'effervescent contact de l'esprit avec la realite)”

— Pierre Reverdy

One of my favorite poets, Neruda, writes close to the bone. Though I know only a little Spanish, I like to compare the Spanish…

— Anita Diament

Absolute is a game with only one player where Absolute forgets itself so it would have a reason to fulfill the motion while returning.

— Dejan Stojanovic

Defeat furnishes good material to the poets and the artists, but none of us care to have the glory of the conquered apply to…

— Susan Glaspell