Joan Larkin

Keep growing. Stay awake. Beware of gurus. Keep a low overhead.

— Joan Larkin

Spanish and English have such different music, and in my own poetry I feel much less drawn to fluid sounds than I…

— Joan Larkin

People need what they think of as a poem to be read at their bar mitzvah, their wedding, a funeral, whatever. And…

— Joan Larkin

I'm trying to stay open to the idea that the Internet is not the evil foe of publishing but the handmaiden that…

— Joan Larkin

It takes courage to get clear about what your vision of the work is and to be persistent about it and pursue…

— Joan Larkin

Teaching has given me a community that cares about poetry, and I'm grateful for that.

— Joan Larkin

I think translation is an impossible job, and I admire the people who do it in a way that brings poetry to…

— Joan Larkin

Rhythms and sounds are often the first thing I hear and want in a poem, so I can't imagine trying to translate…

— Joan Larkin

Poetry is a tree with very deep roots and while there may be excitement about this or that new little branch, you're…

— Joan Larkin

I love that people want to know about poetry. It's one of the ways of keeping alive.

— Joan Larkin

People want poetry and need it - we need what's not honored by the corporate mentality that has taken over. It gives…

— Joan Larkin

After I started publishing poetry I got to teach creative writing. Eventually I was promoted and even got tenure. But then I…

— Joan Larkin

From the beginning. I was a poem-writing child. I wrote little novels in my composition book when I was eight, nine years…

— Joan Larkin

I'm much more capable of cutting back than of expanding. I've gotten very surgical about poems.

— Joan Larkin

“Is ‘vagina’ suitable for use in a sonnet? I don’t suppose so. A famous poet told me, ‘Vagina’s ugly.’ Meaning, of course,…

— Joan Larkin

I worked in an art gallery for a few years, doing administrative assistance stuff, and it exposed me to what the whole…

— Joan Larkin

I love stories, but writing fiction is another craft and I don't feel as if I have it.

— Joan Larkin

Whether the poet is living or dead, they're part of our imaginative community.

— Joan Larkin

My books have come many years apart and each one seems to reflect a period of experience. Ending the book is like…

— Joan Larkin

There are some books in which every poem is a facet of the same thing. So the book is like a piece…

— Joan Larkin

There's always some reason not to be writing and I regret the times I give in to that, because then writing feels…

— Joan Larkin

I think we're always most interested in the things we're doing right now.

— Joan Larkin