I need about one hundred fifty drafts of a poem to get it right, and fifty more to make it sound spontaneous. — James Dickey Copy Share Image
It takes an awful lot of time for me to write anything. I have endless drafts, one after another; and I try out 50, 75, or a hundred variations on a single line sometimes. I work on the process of… — James Dickey Copy Share Image
I once had the nerve to ask Picasso the question, 'What is art?' He answered, 'Art is a lie which makes us see the… — James Dickey Copy Share
The true feeling of sex is that of a deep intimacy, but above all of a deep complicity… — James Dickey Copy Share
“If I were going to tell one of my sons how to possess the world, I would simply bring him into my house, show… — James Dickey Copy Share
What a view, i said again. The river was blank and mindless with beauty. It was the most glorious thing I have ever seen.… — James Dickey Copy Share
I do think the author ought to be able to give a good reason for the way things are in his poem. Not a… — James Dickey Copy Share
I think Ginsberg has done more harm to the craft that I honor and live by than anybody else by reducing it to a… — James Dickey Copy Share
I don’t believe that a reviewer or a critic can really criticize well unless he can praise well. — James Dickey Copy Share
We've always had a tradition in America of hounding our artists to death. Look at the list of our great artists, you see a… — James Dickey Copy Share
A poet trains himself to stand out in a storm and be struck by lightning. If he is lucky enough to be struck six… — James Dickey Copy Share
Flight is the only truly new sensation than men have achieved in modern history. — James Dickey Copy Share
