Primitive Quotes by Helen Vendler

You don’t read or overhear the voice in the poem, you are the voice in the poem.

— Helen Vendler

I wouldn't be very happy if a poet read what I had written and said, 'What a peculiar thing to say about this work…

— Helen Vendler

Each poem leads you to the questions it makes sense to ask it.

— Helen Vendler

I like art history and art criticism. Leo Steinberg has always been my favorite. He's very original, very accurate and acute.

— Helen Vendler

I think that a lot of things are hard to read if you're not in the vocabulary flow of that particular discourse. I sometimes…

— Helen Vendler

If you like the precision and concision of poetry, a page of prose is unsatisfying in a certain way. And poetry is so direct.

— Helen Vendler

I liked teaching Henry James. When you look down at a Henry James novel from a helicopter height, you find an intricate spider web…

— Helen Vendler

The non-artists among us are always terribly busy, but finally disappear without a trace.

— Helen Vendler

I would like to spend more time with Spanish poetry. I know French better than Spanish, but Spanish was my first language, and my…

— Helen Vendler

The art of utterance persuades initially by its music and its rhythm, before semiotic or personal characteristics come into play.

— Helen Vendler

I like art history and art criticism. Leo Steinberg has always been my favorite. Hes very original, very accurate and acute.

— Helen Vendler

Twentieth-century American poetry has been one of the glories of modern literature.

— Helen Vendler