Books Quote by Ben Lerner

“A badly written novel can always be shortened to a poem.”

— Gloria D. Gonsalves

If the poem can be improved by the author's explanations, it never should have been published.

— Archibald MacLeish

I believe that the short story is as different a form from the novel as poetry is, and the best stories seem to me…

— Tobias Wolff

But maybe it's up in the hills under the leaves or in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it's never found. But what you find, whatever…

— Paul Engle

I believe that poets have to be inside their poems somewhere, or the poem won't work.

— Joy Harjo

But maybe it's up the hills or under the leaves or in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it's never found. But what you find, whatever…

— Paul Engle

...the poet, while creating anew, is likely to be in a sense restoring something old.

— Owen Barfield

The novel is a prose narrative of some length that has something wrong with it.

— Randall Jarrell

It's not surprising to me that books ended up playing a central role in my life, but it is somewhat mysterious that poetry did.

— Campbell McGrath

Once an author finishes a poem, he becomes merely another reader. I may remember what I intended to put into a text, but what…

— Dana Gioia

Poetry has roots, but they are sometimes cut off and still poetry is written.

— Shirley Geok-lin Lim

What is the poem, after it is written? That is the question. Not where it came from or why.

— Allen Tate