You litter poems with too much learning when you're younger. — Tony Harrison Learning Copy Share Image
I believe more in the power of drama than in the power of religion. — Tony Harrison Believe Copy Share Image
Not becoming 'something' scares me the most. I just want to be remembered for something great. — Tony Harrison Becoming Copy Share Image
Why shouldn't poetry address what happened yesterday and be published in the newspaper? — Tony Harrison Newspaper Copy Share Image
'Night Mail' belongs quintessentially to the age of steam. It is impossible to simply go with the idea of remaking it. — Tony Harrison Age Copy Share Image
The ear will surrender even at those times when the eye wants to close, when the eye doesn't want to watch. — Tony Harrison Close Copy Share Image
Poetry is all I write, whether for books or readings or for the National Theatre or for the opera house and concert… — Tony Harrison Books Copy Share Image
I really admire the great Japanese artists who could change their name three times in a lifetime. You could get rid of… — Tony Harrison Admire Copy Share Image
I love being on the road with others, with a camera, but also being alone writing poetry. — Tony Harrison Alone Copy Share Image
I was brought up on music hall, and at the same time, I was studying Greek at the age of 12. — Tony Harrison Age Copy Share Image
I used to be scared of the Candyman. You'd say his name three times in the mirror and then he'd come get… — Tony Harrison Becoming Copy Share Image
A lot of my activity in the theatre, and even in writing poems, was a kind of retrospective aggro on the English… — Tony Harrison English teacher Copy Share Image
I think it's the tendency to want to create gods and monotheistic absolutes and absolute certainties that is the continual temptation in… — Tony Harrison God Copy Share Image
Coming from a very inarticulate family made me try to speak for those who can't express themselves and created a need for… — Tony Harrison Family Copy Share Image
For me, there is a paradox in poetry, which is like the paradox in tragedy. You have the most terrible subject, but… — Tony Harrison Heart Copy Share Image
There's a kind of despair about whether art can really do anything, but you have to incorporate that despair into the way… — Tony Harrison Art Copy Share Image
I don't really have one type favorite type of candy. When I was younger we used to always go to the rich… — Tony Harrison Again and again Copy Share Image
I wanted to learn Latin and Greek and become a poet and acquire power over language. I only understand this clearly in… — Tony Harrison Education Copy Share Image
Honours seem to be the nature of British life. It's horrible. Maybe I'm mad, but the older I get, the less I… — Tony Harrison British Copy Share Image
I hate the anglicanisation of culture, the idea that culture is genteel. It's not genteel. — Tony Harrison Culture Copy Share Image
The imagination has its limits, and you have to face up to that. — Tony Harrison Face Copy Share Image
Theatre has to be theatrical. It has to draw attention to itself, like poetry. — Tony Harrison Actor Copy Share Image
I hate being called poet/dramatist/translator/director. 'Poet' covers it all for me. — Tony Harrison Being Copy Share Image
I've always had the wish, the need, and the obsession to become a public poet. — Tony Harrison Always Copy Share Image
It's been an obsession with me from childhood, the horrors of the twentieth century. — Tony Harrison Childhood Copy Share Image
I've realised darkness and light are inter-dependent, just as death is an enhancer of life. — Tony Harrison Darkness Copy Share Image
I spent a lot of time on recce. It is a kind of creative chaos, but I like the sense of creative… — Tony Harrison Chaos Copy Share Image
The ones we choose to love become our anchorwhen the hawser of the blood-tie's hacked, or frays. — Tony Harrison Blood Copy Share Image
I need to look back on my poetic ventures, make sense of them as a whole, and move forward... and to experiment… — Tony Harrison Back Copy Share Image
I think poems belong as much in the news pages as the literary pages. A lot of people throw aside the literary… — Tony Harrison Belong Copy Share Image
Yes, I've got inwardness and tenderness, but I also get angry and vituperative, and you have to honour that as well. — Tony Harrison Angry Copy Share Image
It is always better to write for the whole of society than for the poetry-reading public. — Tony Harrison Always Copy Share Image
You can make poems out of anger as well as tenderness. You can make poetry out of anything. It can be the… — Tony Harrison Anger Copy Share Image
