All Billy Collins Quotes
- I'm trying to write poems that involve beginning at a known place, and ending up at a slightly different place. I'm trying to take a… Beginning
- Listeners are kind of ambushed... if a poem just happens to be said when they're listening to the radio. The listener doesn't have time to… Ambushed
- Often people, when they're confronted with a poem, it's like someone who keep saying 'what is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of… Confronted
- The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it… Bases
- The pen is an instrument of discovery rather than just a recording implement. If you write a letter of resignation or something with an agenda,… Agenda
- The poem is not, as someone put it, deflective of entry. But the real question is, 'What happens to the reader once he or she… Entry
- There are interesting forms of difficulty, and there are unprofitable forms of difficulty. I mean, I enjoy some difficult poetry, but some of it is… Difficult
- One of these days I'm-a make me a book out of you. Book
- ...pleasure, of course, is a slippery word.... Our pleasures ultimately belong to us, not to the pleasure's source. Belong
- Introduction To Poetry I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear… Across
- No one here likes a wet dog. Dog
- It seems only yesterday I used to believe there was nothing under my skin but light. If you cut me I could shine. Believe
- I could look at you forever and never see the two of us together Forever
- It's time to float on the waters of the night. Time to wrap my arms around this book and press it to my chest, life… Anonymous
- A sentence starts out like a lone traveler heading into a blizzard at midnight, tilting into the wind, one arm shielding his face, the tails… Arm
- All they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating… All
- Vade Mecum I want the scissors to be sharp and the table perfectly level when you cut me out of my life and paste me… Always Carry
- Nationalism is a type of insanity in which the boundaries of a land replace God. Boundaries
- The mind can be trained to relieve itself on paper. Inspirational
- ...the trouble with poetry is that it encourages the writing of more poetry... Encourages