Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
I'm fighting against the bad poet who is prone to using too many words. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
“You were saved because you were the first. You were saved because you were the last. Alone. With others. On the right.… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Though I may deny poets their monopoly on inspiration, I still place them in a select group of Fortune's darlings. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Unfortunately, poetry is not born in noise, in crowds, or on a bus. There have to be four walls and the certainty… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
“The killer whale's heart weighs one hundred kilos but in other respects it is light. There is nothing more animal-like than a… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Sometimes I write quickly, sometimes I spend several weeks on a single poem. I would really love for readers not to be… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Poets yearn, of course, to be published, read, and understood, but they do little, if anything, to set themselves above the common… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Each of us has a very rich nature and can look at things objectively, from a distance, and at the same time… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
All the best have something in common, a regard for reality, an agreement to its primacy over the imagination. Even the richest,… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Contemporary poets are skeptical and suspicious even, or perhaps especially, about themselves. They publicly confess to being poets only reluctantly, as if… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
I usually write for the individual reader -though I would like to have many such readers. There are some poets who write… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
In the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
When I mention somebody, that doesn't necessarily mean that I identify with him, personally or poetically. I'm extremely happy when I encounter… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
“Four billion people on this earth but my imagination is still the same. It's bad with large numbers. It's still taken by… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
I've had the good fortune to read a lot of great American writers in translation, and my absolute beloved, for me one… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Poets, if they're genuine, must keep repeating "I don't know." Each poem marks an effort to answer this statement, but as soon… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
I usually write for the individual reader -though I would like to have many such readers. There are some poets who write for people… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Out of every hundred people, those who always know better: fifty-two. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
I don't know the role I'm playing. I only know it's mine, non-convertible. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
This terrifying world is not devoid of charms, of the mornings that make waking up worthwhile. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
“Every beginning, after all, is nothing but a sequel, and the book of events is always open in the middle.” — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
All the best have something in common, a regard for reality, an agreement to its primacy over the imagination. Even the richest, most surprising… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
“Four billion people on this earth but my imagination is still the same. It's bad with large numbers. It's still taken by particularity. It… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Most of the earth's inhabitants work to get by. They work because they have to. They didn't pick this or that kind of job… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
God was finally going to believe in a man both good and strong, but good and strong are still two different men. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Carry on, then, if only for the moment that it takes a tiny galaxy to blink! — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
