Stephen Dobyns Quotes

22 quotes in 516 categories

• Most women are more into real estate than sex. They want to own you.
• One writes a poem when one is so taken up by an emotional concept that one is unable to remain silent.
• For the past thirty years or so, much American poetry has been marked by an earnestness that rejects the comic. This has nothing to do…
• I write poems to find out why I write them
• Each thing I do, I rush through, so I can do something else.
• A poem is a window that hangs between two or more human beings who otherwise live in darkened rooms.
• Love doesn't need a reason. Hate needs a reason.
• I like it to be quiet, and it usually occurs in the morning. There are three or four places in my house where I can…
• I can't believe there is a poet who hasn't eagerly put down a word one day, only to erase it the next day deciding it…
• Many of my poems try to use a comic element to reach a place that isn't comic at all. The comic element works as a…
• My poems always begin with a metaphor, but my way into the metaphor may be a word, an image, even a sound. And I rarely…
• Writing is a job, a craft, and you learn it by trying to write every day and by facing the page with humility and gall.…
• He thinks of that ocean house and wishes he were back in his former life or that one could take one moment and remain inside…
• Each thing I do, I rush through so I can do something else. In such a way do the days pass---a blend of stock car…
• Actions have consequences. Ignorance about the nature of those actions does not free a person from responsibility for the consequences. (28)
• They are asleep. This is the condition they prefer. They are afraid of the world and sleep is a way of dealing with their fear.…
• Adolescence is a dreadful period. We tend to notice those youngsters who misbehave and call attention to themselves, but there are others, equally miserable, who…
• Let's say someone has experienced a violent trauma or betrayal: a child has been raped by a parent or has witnessed the destruction of someone…
• There are many reasons for violence. This is just something that sometimes happens. We'd see it in treatment centers - the child who'd suffered something…
• It was as if pain were a room he had entered and the door had been locked behind him.

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