All Billy Collins Quotes
- 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
- life is a loaded gun that looks right at you with a yellow eye. Eye
- But tonight, the lion of contentment has placed a warm heavy paw on my chest. Chest
- I could feel the day offering itself to me, and I wanted nothing more than to be in the moment-but which moment? Not that one,… Day
- This is not what it is like to be you, I realized as a few of your magnificent clouds flew over the rooftop. It is… Circle
- But some nights, I must tell you, I go down there after everyone has fallen asleep. I swim back and forth in the echoing blackness.… Asleep
- I stared up at the ebbing quarter moon and the stars scattered like a handful of salt across the faraway sky... Across
- I see all of us reading ourselves away from ourselves, straining in circles of light to find more light until the line of words becomes… Across
- You come by your style by learning what to leave out. At first you tend to overwrite—embellishment instead of insight. You either continue to write… Bilge
- But tomorrow, dawn will come the way I picture her, barefoot and disheveled, standing outside my window in one of the fragile cotton dresses of… Arms
- The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly… Author