Impossibilities Quote by Aristotle

“Accordingly, the poet should prefer probable impossibilities to improbable possibilities.”

— Aristotle

“But the detail of the poem shows power akin to genius, and reveals to us that much neglected law of literary history -- that…

— C.S. Lewis

The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone…

— Franz Grillparzer

“A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility. The story should never be made up of improbable incidents; there should be nothing…

— Aristotle

“He showed, in a few words, that it is not sufficient to throw together a few incidents that are to be met with in…

— Voltaire

An undevout poet is an impossibility.

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“All novels are impossible. We would not wish to read them if they were not. Can you imagine how dull a tale would be…

— Caitlin Williams

“It makes me wonder if living under tragic circumstances inflects a person's sentences, irresistibly, with poetry.”

— Sara Baume

So the poet, who wants to be something that he cannot be, and is a failure in plain life, makes up fictitious versions of…

— Allen Tate

“Poetry can be a form of restriction. Lock away tragedy inside pretty words. Quantify pieces of infinite love.”

— Cody Edward Lee Miller

I think that in the process of writing, all kinds of unexpected things happen that shift the poet away from his plan and that…

— John Ashbery

A poem's life and death dependeth still Not on the poet's wits, but reader's will.

— Alexander Brome