Bed Quote by Stanley Kunitz

“Lyric poets are always corrupting the young, making them choke in self-pity and indulge in reverie. Dirty sex and direspect for authority is what…

— Charles Simic

The ear writes my poems, not the mind.

— Stanley Kunitz

I tell poets that when a line just floats into your head, don't pay attention 'cause it probably has floated into somebody else's head.

— Gwendolyn Brooks

“Do you know what people do when they read poetry?  They try to figure out what was going on in the poet’s head, and…

— Debora Geary

“People say I must be cold–natured—sexless—on account of it. But I won’t have it! Some of the most passionately erotic poets have been the…

— Thomas Hardy

the poets down here don't write nothin' at all, they just stand back and let it all be...

— Bruce Springsteen

Poetry is telling something to someone.

— Marie Howe

Poets can tell the truth as they see it. It’s the author’s story, the author’s voice.

— Nikki Giovanni

“Here's how I used to think you made a book: a poet comes along, mouth half open, inspired, then suddenly the idiot bursts into…

— Vladimir Mayakovsky

“Poems are not for explaining," she said, her tone as bored and faintly scornful as his. "They are for pretty girls to read aloud.…

— Emily Horner

“I feel like shredded paper thrown to the wind, each poet took a piece of me and wrote a word or phrase...”

— Luis Alexandre Ribeiro Branco

“These ears aren't to be trusted. The keening in the night, didn't you hear? Once I believed all the stories didn’t have endings, but…

— Jeannine Hall Gailey