Poetry Quotes by Joseph Brodsky

I'm no parasite. I'm a poet who will bring honor and glory to his country.

— Joseph Brodsky

I am a patriot, but I must say that English poetry is the richest in the world.

— Joseph Brodsky

My intention is to write poems. That's what I've been doing most of my life.

— Joseph Brodsky

In poetic thought, the role of the subconscious is played by euphony.

— Joseph Brodsky

Tyranny will make an entire population into readers of poetry.

— Joseph Brodsky

After the last line of a poem, nothing follows except literary criticism.

— Joseph Brodsky

Poetry is what is gained in translation.

— Joseph Brodsky

Poetry is not an art or a branch of art: it's something more.

— Joseph Brodsky

Poetry is not only the most concise way of conveying the human experience; it also offers the highest possible standards for any…

— Joseph Brodsky

American poetry to me is a sort of relentless, nonstop sermon on human autonomy.

— Joseph Brodsky

I haven't shifted language. I'm writing in English because I like it. I'm a sucker for the language, but the good old…

— Joseph Brodsky

This assumption that the blue collar crowd is not supposed to read it, or a farmer in his overalls is not to…

— Joseph Brodsky

Poetry isn't just different from prose, it's more important for the human species.

— Joseph Brodsky

I am losing my Soviet citizenship, I do not cease to be a Russian poet. I believe that I will return. Poets…

— Joseph Brodsky

Weaknesses have a certain function in a poem... some strategy in order to pave the reader's way to the impact of this…

— Joseph Brodsky

Poems, novels - these things belong to the nation, to the culture, and the people.

— Joseph Brodsky

By writing... in the language of his society, a poet takes a large step toward it. It is society's job to meet…

— Joseph Brodsky

By failing to read or listen to poets, society dooms itself to inferior modes of articulation: those of the politician, the salesman…

— Joseph Brodsky

Poems, novels - these things belong to the nation, to the culture and the people. They've been stolen from the people and…

— Joseph Brodsky

In America, a metrical poem is likely to conjure up the idea of the sort of poet who wears ties and lunches…

— Joseph Brodsky

At certain periods of history it is only poetry that is capable of dealing with reality by condensing it into something graspable,…

— Joseph Brodsky

The charge frequently leveled against poetry - that it is difficult, obscure, hermetic and whatnot - indicates not the state of poetry…

— Joseph Brodsky

Americans have been tremendously fortunate in poetry, regarding both the quantity and quality of poetry produced. Unfortunately, it remains in schools and…

— Joseph Brodsky

If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no other choice.…

— Joseph Brodsky

Because every book of art, be it a poem or a cupola, is understandably a self-portrait of its author, we won't strain…

— Joseph Brodsky

Judge: And what is your occupation in general? Brodsky: Poet, poet-translator. Judge: And who recognized you to be a poet? Who put…

— Joseph Brodsky

If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no other choice.…

— Joseph Brodsky

By failing to read or listen to poets, society dooms itself to inferior modes of articulation, those of the politician, the salesman,…

— Joseph Brodsky

Literature sort of makes your daily operation, your daily conduct, the management of your affairs in the society a bit more complex.…

— Joseph Brodsky

For some odd reason, the expression 'death of a poet' always sounds somewhat more concrete than 'life of a poet.'

— Joseph Brodsky

To translate poetry, one has to possess some art, at the very least the art of stylistic re-embodiment.

— Joseph Brodsky

If what distinguishes us from other species is speech, then poetry, which is the supreme linguistic operation, is our anthropological - indeed,…

— Joseph Brodsky

Anyone who regards poetry as an entertainment, as a 'read,' commits an anthropological crime, in the first place against himself.

— Joseph Brodsky

Good style in prose is always hostage to the precision, speed, and laconic intensity of poetic diction.

— Joseph Brodsky

Although I am losing my Soviet citizenship, I do not cease to be a Russian poet.

— Joseph Brodsky

Once I stop being a citizen of the U.S.S.R., I will not stop being a Russian poet.

— Joseph Brodsky

I wrote poems. That is my work. I am convinced... I believe that what I wrote will be useful to people not…

— Joseph Brodsky

There is nothing odder than to apply an analytical device to a synthetic phenomenon: for instance, to write in English about a…

— Joseph Brodsky

Poetry seems to be the only weapon able to beat language, using language's own means.

— Joseph Brodsky

People who buy 'The National Enquirer' would buy poetry. They should be given a choice. I'm absolutely serious.

— Joseph Brodsky