The first task of the poet is to create the person who…

My task as poet is close to me.

— Tanikella Bharani

“With you as an inspiration, a painter will create his best painting, a writer will write his best literature and a poet will create…

— Amit Kalantri

Does a poet create, originate, initiate the thing called a poem, or is his behavior merely the product of his genetic and environmental histories?

— B. F. Skinner

I want to write poems that are natural, luminous, deep, spare. I dream of an art so transparent that you can look through and…

— Stanley Kunitz

“Our power is patience. We have discovered that writing allows even a stupid person to seem halfway intelligent, if only that person will write…

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Eventually he begins to practice his new signature in the margins of the paper. He tries it in various styles, his hand unaccustomed to…

— Jhumpa Lahiri

I say to my pupils, 'You can pitch me any thing you've got, but tell me why you're the only person who can write…

— Dustin Lance Black

Now, what sort of person would write a scene where a young man stumbles upon a castle full only of beautiful young women? Answer:…

— Michael Palin

Obviously I love writing with Katy [Pery], I feel like we're the same person when we write together. Even though we fight a lot,…

— Bonnie McKee

“You don't teach a person how to write as much as you teach that person how to survive the writing process.”

— Rowan Ricardo Phillips

Novelists have, on the average, about the same IQs as the cosmetic consultants at Bloomingdale’s department store. Our power is patience. We have discovered…

— Kurt Vonnegut

All great writers are schizophrenics, you know what I'm saying? 'Cause they switch up. They become the person when they write.

— LL Cool J

If someone says something unpleasant, I can't say it doesn't smart a bit. It always does. Someone can take a really nasty swipe if…

— Annie Lennox

Your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person-a real person you know, or an…

— John Steinbeck

You know that I try to maintain a continuous conversation with you. I take comfort in the thought that the important thing is not…

— Pope John Paul I