I do think the author ought to be able to give a good reason for the way things are in his poem.… — James Dickey Copy Share Image
I think Ginsberg has done more harm to the craft that I honor and live by than anybody else by reducing it… — James Dickey Copy Share Image
We've always had a tradition in America of hounding our artists to death. Look at the list of our great artists, you… — James Dickey Copy Share Image
A poet trains himself to stand out in a storm and be struck by lightning. If he is lucky enough to be… — James Dickey Copy Share Image
“You never know that. I don't know it; Robert Lowell doesn't know it; John Berryman didn't know it; and Shakespeare probably didn't… — James Dickey Copy Share Image
“... Up telephone poles, Which rear, half out of leavage As though they would shriek Like things smothered by their own Green,… — James Dickey Copy Share Image
“I had begun to suspect, however, that there is a poet—or a kind of poet—buried in every human being like Ariel in… — James Dickey Copy Share Image
Poetry makes possible the deepest kind of personal possession of the world. — James Dickey Copy Share Image
“A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightening.” — James Dickey Copy Share Image
A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning. — James Dickey Copy Share Image
Poetry is a hazardous occupation, very hazardous. There may be bad things in there inside you that maybe you can't handle. — James Dickey Copy Share Image
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
What you have to realize when you write poetry, or if you love poetry, is that poetry is just naturally the greatest… — 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 Image
The true feeling of sex is that of a deep intimacy, but above all of a deep complicity.... — James Dickey Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
I don’t believe that a reviewer or a critic can really criticize well unless he can praise well. — James Dickey Copy Share Image
