Fifty Quote by James Dickey

Every poem probably has sixty drafts behind it.

— Mary Karr

In my own work, I usually revise through forty or fifty drafts of a poem before I begin to feel content with it.

— Mary Oliver

I am still interested in the long or serial poem, but have written a few smaller things. I may start sending to journals again…

— George Murray

Sometimes I write quickly, sometimes I spend several weeks on a single poem. I would really love for readers not to be able to…

— Wislawa Szymborska

I want to make a poem of my life.

— Yukio Mishima

I want a poem which is made of compression, passion, precision, symmetry, & disruption.

— Lucie Brock-Broido

I have a high guilt quotient. A poem can go through as many as 50 or 60 drafts. It can take from a day…

— Rita Dove

“I could write a million poems Wish you 'd under- stand”

— Adnan Shafi

Poetry is the hardest thing that there is. It fascinates me, so I want to write more of it.

— Steve Earle

Let my life as Poet begin. I want the life of the Poet. I have labored for over twelve years, one thousand pages of…

— Maxine Hong Kingston

Poems that come swiftly are usually the ones that you keep.

— Seamus Heaney

Poems seem to have a life of their own. They tell you when enough is enough.

— Thomas Lynch