Always Quote by Tony Harrison

It's a good thing to get poetry off the shelves and more into public life.

— Billy Collins

People should be stopped from writing poetry. There's far too much of it. And if they're any good, they'll go ahead anyways.

— Clive James

A poet is not a public figure. A poet should be read and not seen.

— Cecil Day-Lewis

A great many people seem to think writing poetry is worthwhile, even though it pays next to nothing and is not as widely read…

— Mark Strand

Write verse, not poetry. The public wants verse. If you have a talent for poetry, then don't by any means mother it, but try…

— Robert W. Service

When in public poetry should take off its clothes and wave to the nearest person in sight; it should be seen in the company…

— Brian Patten

It is no use thinking that writing of poems - the actual writing - can accommodate itself to a social setting, even the most…

— Mary Oliver

They say poets write mostly for themselves; if anyone else likes it, well and good, if not, it doesn't matter; certainly, not to me.

— Tom Glazer

Ideally, I'd like to write poetry for public performances and prose for a different, more contemplative kind of consumption.

— Amitava Kumar

One can't write for all readers. A poet cannot write for people who don't like poetry.

— Nathalie Sarraute

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

— Cyril Connolly

I don't think poetry has a readership anywhere, really, that's that big.

— Derek Walcott