Poetry Quotes by Famous Poets
You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy... by Ray Bradbury
So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than... by Harold Acton
The role of a writer is not to say what we all can... by Anaïs Nin
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A word is not the same with one writer as with another.... by Charles Peguy
And by the way, everything in life is writable about... by Sylvia Plath
I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for... by Richard Wright
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If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't... by Toni Morrison
What I like in a good author is not what he says, but... by Logan Pearsall Smith
The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for... by Norbet Platt
It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip... by Vita Sackville-West
Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't... by Sharon O'Brien
Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined... by Mark Twain
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The time to begin writing an article is when you have... by Mark Twain
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Don't be too harsh to these poems until they're typed.... by Dylan Thomas
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The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous... by Vladimir Nabakov
Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint... by Anton Chekhov
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Ink and paper are sometimes passionate lovers, oftentimes... by Emme Woodhull-Bäche
Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the... by Orson Scott Card
The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely... by Jules Renard
The difference between the right word and the almost... by Mark Twain
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A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an... by Karl Kraus
A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants... by Samuel McChord Crothers
When once the itch of literature comes over a man,... by Samuel Lover, Handy Andy
I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words... by James Michener
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live,... by Isaac Asimov
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Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing... by Nathaniel Hawthorne
A critic can only review the book he has read, not... by Mignon McLaughlin
Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing... by Catherine Drinker Bowen
To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what... by Truman Capote
A writer and nothing else: a man alone in a room with... by John K. Hutchens
I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to... by English Professor
Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the... by Hannah Arendt
It seems to me that the problem with diaries, and the... by Ann Beattie
For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the... by John Cheever
Ink on paper is as beautiful to me as flowers on the... by Audra Foveo-Alba
Every great writer is a writer of history, let him... by Walter Savage Landor
Let me walk through the fields of paper touching with... by Denise Levertov
When we see a natural style we are quite amazed and... by Blaise Pascal
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Writer's block is a disease for which there is no cure,... by Laurie Wordholt
A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the... by Baltasar Gracián
When something can be read without effort, great effort... by Enrique Jardiel Poncela
I asked Ring Lardner the other day how he writes his... by Harold Ross
When you are describing, A shape, or sound, or tint; Don't... by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Writing comes more easily if you have something to... by Sholem Asch
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The ablest writer is only a gardener first, and then... by Augustus Hare and Julius Hare
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I'd rather be caught holding up a bank than stealing... by Jack Smith
An incurable itch for scribbling takes possession of... by Juvenal, Satires
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The process of writing has something infinite about... by Elias Canetti
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Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between... by Isaac Bashevis Singer
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What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that... by Burton Rascoe
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing... by Agatha Christie
An old racetrack joke reminds you that your program... by Mignon McLaughlin
There are men that will make you books, and turn them... by Miguel de Cervantes
Writers are not just people who sit down and write.... by E.L. Doctorow
The maker of a sentence launches out into the infinite... by Ralph Waldo Emerson
A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely... by Henry David Thoreau
You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of... by Arthur Polotnik
An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the... by Adlai Stevenson
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What would there be in a story of happiness? Only... by André Gide
Authors and lovers always suffer some infatuation,... by Samuel Johnson
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A good style should show no signs of effort. What... by W. Somerset Maugham
They lard their lean books with the fat of others'... by Robert Burton
My language is the common prostitute that I turn into... by Karl Kraus
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As for my next book, I am going to hold myself from... by Virginia Woolf
I think it's bad to talk about one's present work,... by Norman Mailer
If I fall asleep with a pen in my hand, don't remove... by Danzae Pace
There's only one person who needs a glass of water... by Mignon McLaughlin
One ought only to write when one leaves a piece of... by Leo Tolstoy
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What things there are to write, if one could only write... by Logan Pearsall Smith
No author dislikes to be edited as much as he dislikes... by Russell Lynes
A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end...... by Jean Luc Godard
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Whatever an author puts between the two covers of his... by Gail Hamilton
Sleep on your writing; take a walk over it; scrutinize... by A. Bronson Alcott
The artist's only responsibility is his art. He will... by Faulkner
A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult... by Thomas Mann
The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts... by André Gide
Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love... by Edna Ferber
The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand... by Alfred Kazin
i never think at all when i write nobody can do two... by Don Marquis
Our passions shape our books; repose writes them in... by Proust
I keep little notepads all over the place to write... by Emily Logan Decens
I even shower with my pen, in case any ideas drip out... by Graycie Harmon
Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage... by Samuel Johnson
The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in,... by Ernest Hemingway
The two most engaging powers of an author are to make... by Samuel Johnson
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There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry... by Robert Graves
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He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry... by George Sand
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Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast... by Eli Khamarov
Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land,... by Carl Sandburg
Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which... by Percy Shelley
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Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out... by W.B. Yeats
ever been kidnapped by a poet if i were a poet i'd... by Yolande Giovaanni, Jr.
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A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants... by Samuel McChord Crothers
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A poet is an unhappy being whose heart is torn by secret... by Soren Kierkegaard
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It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged... by Stephen Mallarme
The true poet is all the time a visionary and whether... by W.B. Yeats
If the author had said "Let us put on appropriate... by Author Unknown
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The smell of ink is intoxicating to me - others may... by Abbe Yeux-verdi
There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess... by John Cage
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Do not put statements in the negative form. And don't... by William Safire
No one means all he says, and yet very few say all... by Henry Brooks Adams
Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank... by Gene Fowler
Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that... by Francis Bacon
The expression "to write something down"... by William Gass
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Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university... by Flannery O'Connor
Being an author is like being in charge of your own... by Graycie Harmon
It seems to me that those songs that have been any... by Joan Baez
When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing,... by Samuel Butler
To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole,... by Lord Byron
If I'm trying to sleep, the ideas won't stop. If I'm... by Carrie Latet
Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean.... by Theodore Dreiser
It is the little writer rather than the great writer... by Havelock Ellis
The coroner will find ink in my veins and blood on... by C. Astrid Weber
Many books require no thought from those who read them,... by Charles Caleb Colton
Your manuscript is both good and original; but the... by Author Unknown
How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not... by Henry David Thoreau
I am a man, and alive.... For this reason I am a novelist.... by D.H. Lawrence
Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with... by Author Unknown
It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they... by Sinclair Lewis
Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the... by Friedrich Nietzsche
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Let's hope the institution of marriage survives its... by Peter S. Prescott
It's not plagiarism - I'm recycling words, as any good... by Uniek Swain
True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance, As... by Alexander Pope
Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold... by Franz Kafka
An author in his book must be like God in the universe,... by Gustave Flaubert
The reason why many people are so fond of using superlatives,... by Augustus Hare and Julius Hare
Sit down, and put down everything that comes into your... by Colette
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The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones... by Ray Bradbury
Being an author is having angels whisper in your ear... by Graycie Harmon
Authorship is exhibitionism, and readers a species... by Carrie Latet
Without a pen I feel naked, but it's writing that is... by Carrie Latet
Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a... by Franklin P. Adams
You could compile the worst book in the world entirely... by G.K. Chesterton
A notepad by the bedside accounts for half the earnings... by Ever Garrison
An original writer is not one who imitates nobody,... by Chateaubriand
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Imitation is the highest form of pissing me off. Quit... by Jen T. Verbumessor
The good writing of any age has always been the product... by William Styron
There is no royal path to good writing; and such paths... by Jessamyn West
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Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle,... by George Orwell
One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in... by Hart Crane
Writers are just people who have a whole lot on the... by Graycie Harmon
He that uses many words for the explaining any subject... by John Ray
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A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but... by G.K. Chesterton
Novelists... fashioning nets to sustain and support... by Fay Weldon
Find out the reason that commands you to write; see... by Rainer Maria Rilke
Books want to be born: I never make them. They come... by Samuel Butler
It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent... by Robert Benchley
No man should ever publish a book until he has first... by Van Wyck Brooks
There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man... by William Makepeace Thackeray
I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in... by John Updike
Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man's life,... by Leo Tolstoy
Every author in some way portrays himself in his works,... by Goethe
Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life... by Leonard Cohen
Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a... by Kahlil Gibran
Ink runs from the corners of my mouth There is no... by Mark Strand
Poetry is to philosophy what the Sabbath is to the... by Augustus Hare and Julius Hare
The distinction between historian and poet is not in... by Aristotle
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Poetry should... should strike the reader as a wording... by John Keats
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To see the Summer Sky Is Poetry, though never in a... by Emily Dickinson
The poet is in the end probably more afraid of the... by Robert Penn Warren
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Only the poet has any right to be sorry for the poor,... by William Bolitho
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Most painters have painted themselves. So have most... by Augustus Hare and Julius Hare
Poetry is the language in which man explores his own... by Christopher Fry
If Galileo had said in verse that the world moved,... by Thomas Hardy
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Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly... by Gustave Flaubert
Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into... by Charles Simic
The only problem with Haiku is that you just get... by Roger McGough
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Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has,... by A.E. Housman
Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy... by Thomas Babington Macaulay
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Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their... by Robert Frost
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The poet sees things as they look. Is this having... by Augustus Hare and Julius Hare
Happiness is sharing a bowl of cherries and a book... by Astrid Alauda
Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride... by Robert Frost
A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a... by Wallace Stevens
We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. ... by Dead Poet's Society
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Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape... by T.S. Eliot
If conditions aren't right The poem won't come out It... by Ed Northstrum
Each memorable verse of a true poet has two or three... by Alfred de Musset
Poetry is ordinary language raised to the nth power.... by Paul Engle
I don't create poetry, I create myself, for me my poems... by Edith Södergran
The poem... is a little myth of man's capacity of making... by Robert Penn Warren
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It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can... by W.H. Auden
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I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between... by Pablo Neruda
You can tear a poem apart to see what makes it tick....... by Dylan Thomas
Poets aren't very useful Because they aren't consumeful... by Ogden Nash
If you got to talking to most cowboys, they'd admit... by Ross Knox
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Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the... by Jean Cocteau
It's impossible to write poetry in front of the TV Almost... by Daisey Verlaef
Mathematics and Poetry are... the utterance of the... by Thomas Hill
The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and... by W. Somerset Maugham
A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does... by Jean Cocteau
Everything in creation has its appointed painter or... by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Poetry comes with anger, hunger and dismay; it does... by Christopher Morley
The poet, as everyone knows, must strike his individual... by Robert Frost
[P]oets are masters of us ordinary men, in knowledge... by Sigmund Freud
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Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't... by Alice Walker
Even those who write against fame wish for the fame... by Blaise Pascal
Anyone who believes you can't change history has never... by David Ben Gurion
I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you... by Pearl S. Buck
In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream... by Pearl S. Buck
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Put the argument into a concrete shape, into an image,... by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Every word born of an inner necessity - writing must... by Etty Hillesum
A writer's mind seems to be situated partly in the... by Ethel Wilson
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If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort... by Don Marquis
Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet... by Salvatore Quasimodo
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Each man carries within him the soul of a poet who... by Sainte-Beuve
Poets are mysterious, but a poet when all is said is... by Allen Tate
Browsing the dim back corner Of a musty antique shop Opened... by Pixie Foudre
You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some... by Joseph Joubert
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Science is for those who learn; poetry, for those who... by Joseph Roux
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The worst fate of a poet is to be admired without being... by Jean Cocteau
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He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others... by Oscar Wilde
Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and... by Robert Frost
You don't have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence... by John Ciardi
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A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else... by Yevgeny Yentushenko
A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points... by E.M. Forster
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Poetry is not a civilizer, rather the reverse, for... by Robinson Jeffers
If Painting be Poetry's sister, she can only be a sister... by Augustus Hare and Julius Hare
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Our poetry in the eighteenth century was prose; our... by Augustus Hare and Julius Hare
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Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose-petal... by Don Marquis
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No poems can please for long or live that are written... by Horace
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A poet dares be just so clear and no clearer.... He... by E.B. White
The poet... may be used as a barometer, but let us... by Lionel Trilling
If you've got a poem within you today, I can guarantee... by The Quote Garden
Poetry is nobody's business except the poet's, and... by Philip Larkin
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oets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of... by G.K. Chesterton
A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at... by Salman Rushdie
Poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making... by Dennis Gabor
The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from... by Albert Camus
Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always... by Thomas Jefferson
The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction... by Tom Clancy
It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that... by Virginia Woolf
When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of... by Virginia Woolf
Writing ought either to be the manufacture of stories... by Willa Cather
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There is as much difference between good poetry and... by Augustus Hare and Julius Hare
Mr Witwould: "Pray, madam, do you pin up your... by William Congreve
I would as soon write free verse as play tennis with... by Robert Frost
Poets are like magicians, searching for magical phrases... by Glade Byron Addams
He who writes prose builds his temple to Fame in rubble;... by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The word "Verse" is used here as the term... by Edgar Allan Poe
One of the obligations of the writer is to say or sing... by Denise Levertov
English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment... by E. B. White
The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves... by Elizabeth Drew
There was never a good biography of a good novelist.... by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university... by Flannery O’Connor
I am writing in the garden. To write as one should... by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't... by Gloria Steinem
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All human beings have an innate need to hear and tell... by Harvey Cox
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live,... by Isaac Asimov
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce... by Jack Lynch
Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends,... by Jessamyn West
Women do not always have to write about women, or gay... by Kathryn Hughes
Critics are by no means the end of the law. Do not... by Lavina Goodell
If I had to give young writers advice, I would say... by Lillian Hellman
Yes there is a meaning; at least for me, there is one... by Logan Pearsall Smith
But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling,... by Lord Byron
There are some books that refuse to be written. They... by Mark Twain
I notice that you use plain, simple language, short... by Mark Twain
To get the right word in the right place is a rare... by Mark Twain
Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write... by Oscar Wilde