Intensity Quote by Philip Levine

I realized poetry's the thing that I can do 'cause I can stick at it and work with tremendous intensity.

— Philip Levine

The poetry I grew up on is really an intense form of poetry; it's so pure and powerful.

— K'naan

I like it when poems are challenging, when they concern matters important and personal to the author.

— Cate Marvin

What characterizes a poem is its necessary dependence on words as much as its struggle to transcend them.

— Octavio Paz

What inspires a poem for me is usually a moment.

— Sherman Alexie

Personally I always feel like I could use a little more of poetry apothegmatic power in my own work but we're always lacking something.

— Junot Diaz

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

— Steve Earle

Poetry is the language of intensity. Because we are going to die, an expression of intensity is justified.

— C.D. Wright

I have written every poem, every novel, for the same purpose-to find out what I think, to know where I stand.

— May Sarton

I've been writing a lot of poetry recently. It helps me think and work things out.

— Ed Westwick

I tend to like poems that engage me - that is to say, which do not bore me.

— Mark Strand

I see the progress typical in some of my poems as starting with something simple and moving into something more demanding. This is certainly…

— Billy Collins