Believe Quote by Lydia Davis

“Contemporary poets got so obscure that poetry kind of fell out of favor,”

— Paul Ruffin

Too many poets write poems which are only difficult on the surface, difficult because the dramatic situation is easily misunderstood. It's not difficult to…

— Miller Williams

Many poets, as you know, are not good readers.

— Robert Giroux

It's difficult to put your own bare ass out on the limb every time you sit down to write a poem. But that's really…

— Sam Hamill

All poetry is difficult to read - The sense of it anyhow.

— Robert Browning

If we were in the habit of reading poets their obscurity would not matter; and, once we are out of the habit, their clarity…

— Randall Jarrell

It is fatal to decide, intellectually, what good poetry is because you are then in honour bound to try to write it, instead of…

— Philip Larkin

To be a good poet, you must care more about the writing, than the writer.

— Lucille Clifton

And some poets are far better read off the page because they're very bad speakers. I'm thinking of one in particular whom I won't…

— Norman MacCaig

Everyone is their own kind of poet - you can't miss it when their words are written down.

— Sheila Heti

Most poets, like most people, try hard to be like someone they admire or they are possessed with an image of what they ought…

— James Broughton

“Poetry is simple when you write what you see and feel, searching for the words only makes it difficult”

— Rayvon L. Browne