Art Quote by Gilbert K. Chesterton

Poets do not go mad, but chess players do.

— Anonymous

Poets are the mad midwives to reality. They see not what is, nor what can be, but what must become.

— Dan Simmons

Writers, especially poets, are particularly prone to madness.

— Nick Flynn

Most poets are mad. It doesn't qualify us for anything.

— Anne Sexton

Women who are inclined to write poetry at all are inspired by being mad at something.

— Amy Clampitt

All artists, they say, are a little mad. This madness is, to a certain extent, a self-created myth designed to keep the generality away…

— Angela Carter

Poets take themselves very seriously.

— Grace Paley

I can be upset by malice. Most critics are very poor poets. Poetry is a craft that takes a lot to appreciate, and there…

— Derek Walcott

“All Poets are mad.”

— Robert Burton

If you criticize a fine genius, the odds are that you are out of your reckoning, and, instead of the poet, are censuring your…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Poets... are literal-minded men who will squeeze a word till it hurts.

— Archibald MacLeish

If poets were realistic, they wouldn't be poets.

— Peter Davison