Every poem I write falls short in some important way. But I go on trying to write the one that won’t. — Dorianne Laux Fall Copy Share Image
I would say my life experiences are my poetry, whether I'm writing about those actual, factual experiences or not. — Dorianne Laux Factual Copy Share Image
Good writing works from a simple premise: your experience is not yours alone, but in some sense a metaphor for everyone's. — Dorianne Laux Good writing Copy Share Image
I'm not the only person in the world who is suffering. I'm trying to talk to the world, responding to those voices. — Dorianne Laux Persons Copy Share Image
I also have my backpack of the tried-and-true, and because it is new to [my students], it becomes fresh to me again… — Dorianne Laux Backpack Copy Share Image
“How many losses does it take to stop a heart, to lay waste to the vocabularies of desire?” — Dorianne Laux Death Copy Share Image
Every good poem asks a question, and every good poet asks every question. — Dorianne Laux Poet Copy Share Image
Tinted Distances is a tender meditation that reveals a careful eye and steady devotion to elegy and ode. — Dorianne Laux Careful Copy Share Image
The changes that have occurred in poetry have been minor when you look at it over the scale of human time. It's… — Dorianne Laux Change Copy Share Image
The more that accrues, the more depth, weight, and breadth we can bring to the poems, which we then need to throw… — Dorianne Laux Breadth Copy Share Image
If you want to be a writer in the world you really have to sit down and say, 'Why do I want… — Dorianne Laux Down and Copy Share Image
When you have worked with people all day who have so little and struggle to make it stretch, who live outside the… — Dorianne Laux Humbled Copy Share Image
There is so much about the process of writing that is mysterious to me, but this one thing I've found to be… — Dorianne Laux Begets Copy Share Image
I am the flesh boat of my experiences, we all are , my feelings, thoughts, desires and dreams are captured in my… — Dorianne Laux Boat Copy Share Image
You are not your poetry. Your self-esteem shouldn't depend on whether you publish, or whether some editor or writer you admire thinks… — Dorianne Laux Admire Copy Share Image
W.S Merwin says "after three days of rain" and I write "After Twelve Days of Rain." I like his quietude. I admire… — Dorianne Laux Ability Copy Share Image
And I saw it didn't matter who had loved me or who I loved. I was alone. The black oily asphalt, the… — Dorianne Laux After death Copy Share Image
We all get habituated, right? You get up in the morning, have your coffee, and read your newspaper, and that’s great. Everybody… — Dorianne Laux Aspect Copy Share Image
We aren't suggesting that mental instability or unhappiness makes one a better poet, or a poet at all; and contrary to the… — Dorianne Laux Art Copy Share Image
It's difficult to talk about [W.S.] Merwin's poems, as it's hard to talk about a feeling or a smell. It is what… — Dorianne Laux Aspire Copy Share Image
Writing and reading are the only ways to find your voice. It won't magically burst forth in your poems the next time… — Dorianne Laux Choices Copy Share Image
I think what life experience has brought to my poems is compassion. When you work hard to make a living, raise a… — Dorianne Laux Children Copy Share Image
I don’t worry anymore about writing. There are times that I go through dry periods. I never go through a block. I’m… — Dorianne Laux Art Copy Share Image
Death comes to me again, a girl in a cotton slip, barefoot, giggling. It’s not so terrible she tells me, not like… — Dorianne Laux Air Copy Share Image
“The slate black sky. The middle step of the back porch. And long ago my mother's necklace, the beads rolling north and… — Dorianne Laux Broken Copy Share Image
“You've walked those streets a thousand times and still you end up here. Regret none of it, not one of the wasted… — Dorianne Laux Carnival Copy Share Image
That's how it is sometimes--God comes to your window, all bright light and black wings, and you're just too tired to open… — Dorianne Laux Black Copy Share Image
A poem is like a child; at some point we have to let it go and trust that it will make its… — Dorianne Laux Child Copy Share Image
There's no word for what Young does, only for what he accomplishes-the capturing of small, daily miracles. — Dorianne Laux Accomplish Copy Share Image
I try to avoid calling myself a poet because I think that's something someone else has to call you. It's like bragging. — Dorianne Laux Bragging Copy Share Image
“… They are savage for knowledge, for beauty and truth. They crawl on their knees to find it.” — Dorianne Laux Beauty Copy Share Image
We continue to speak, if only in whispers, to something inside us that longs to be named. — Dorianne Laux Continue Copy Share Image
I feel deep gratitude for the life poetry has allowed me to live. I know the life I could have lived without… — Dorianne Laux Deep gratitude Copy Share Image
Joseph [Millar] is much more disciplined than I am. He's up every morning meditating, then he writes, and he reads throughout the… — Dorianne Laux Book Copy Share Image
“You've traveled this far on the back of every mistake, ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house after the… — Dorianne Laux Failure Copy Share Image
![“I also have my backpack of the tried-and-true, and because it is new to [my students], it becomes fresh to me again as well.” quote by Dorianne Laux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/0dd/dorianne-laux-12252_students_i-also-have-my-backpack-of-the-tried-and_1033225.jpg)
![“It's difficult to talk about [W.S.] Merwin's poems, as it's hard to talk about a feeling or a smell. It is what it is, but so much so that it overwhelms both sense and the senses. I aspire to something about his work, that imbues his poems, though I'm not sure I could say what that is. A purity…” quote by Dorianne Laux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/8c1/dorianne-laux-12252_aspire_it-s-difficult-to-talk-about-w-s-merwin_654128.jpg)
![“Joseph [Millar] is much more disciplined than I am. He's up every morning meditating, then he writes, and he reads throughout the day. He probably reads ten books to my two and writes twice as much as I do.” quote by Dorianne Laux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c20/dorianne-laux-12252_book_joseph-millar-is-much-more-disciplined-t_1704578.jpg)
