I think that poetry is important when you are shipwrecked…

“I do think that poetry is important though, if you don’t strive at it, if you don’t fill it full of stars and falseness.”

— Charles Bukowski

Poetry is important. No less than science, it seeks a hold upon reality, and the closeness of its approach is the test of its…

— Babette Deutsch

Poetry is much more important than the truth, and, if you don't believe that, try using the two methods to get laid.

— Mark Forsyth

Poetry is not the most important thing in life... I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.

— Dylan Thomas

You have an utterly sincere glance when you look around after you are shipwrecked. You weep a long time on an island when you…

— Robert Bly

I think poetry is the best thing I do. It's certainly the purest. I seem to switch gears without too much trouble. Non-fiction is…

— Erica Jong

I think that poetry is an act of celebration, that anytime you're writing a poem, it means that you're celebrating something, even if it's…

— Sarah Kay

I do not think [poetry] is more, or less, necessary than food, shelter, health, education, decent working conditions. It is as necessary.

— Adrienne Rich

I think poetry is best read to oneself.

— Rickie Lee Jones

I think all poetry is accessible in a certain sense if you spend enough time with it.

— Matthea Harvey

Poetry is like walking along a little, tiny, narrow ridge up on a precipice. You never know the next step, whether there's going to…

— Josephine Jacobsen

Poetry is the most direct and simple means of expressing oneself in words: the most primitive nations have poetry, but only quitewell developed civilizations…

— Northrop Frye

Poetry can save the world. I'm a real believer in its power of healing and transforming. I wish more people read it ... Poetry…

— Carol Muske-Dukes

I suppose there's something to be said for the sheer reinforcement of our beliefs, but really I think poetry is more useful as disenchantment…

— Robert Hass

All the modern verse plays, they're terrible; they're mostly about the poetry. It's more important that the play is first.

— Denis Johnson