10 Great Quotes About Poets, Poetry, & Writing by Poets That I Either Personally Know, Interviewed, or Corresponded With…

“I admire poets who are ambitious. I don’t mean ambitious in a careerist or entrepreneurial sense; I mean that they are always trying to get at something deeper, bigger, more true, in terms of craft and content. You can’t always swing for the fences, but I gravitate to those poets who try to take on in some way the big questions about what it means to be human, and try to develop or expand the ways poems can be up to the task.”

— Jonathan Andersen

“Poetry exists because life needs some explanation.”

— Ron Whittle 

“Try not to edit as you write. Allow yourself to write badly and then, allow yourself to write better. Write with joy and energy and not to publish but to practice—the publishing will come. It can’t be rushed. You are an artist and creating art takes time and mastery. All poets are practicing to become better at their craft.”

— Eileen Cleary

“Revision is the primary process [of writing poetry]. Occasionally a line strikes like a bolt of lightning that you rush to capture, but everything around that is a process of revision. Finished is a relative term; most of my poems are not finished until they’ve gone through a series of rewrites. Even the placement of a comma—or lack thereof—can influence meaning, rhythm, mood.”

— Curt Curtin

“Poetry is the sharing of significant, valuable, intense human experience.”

— James R. Scrimgeour

“You need to write a lot and to suspend your ‘inner critic’ to become a better writer. I know this is easier said than done, but struggle to do it. You need to write a lot of lousy poems or stories to learn to write better ones. This is true for all poets and writers.”

— Howard Kogan

“Poetry for me is a still frame, a snapshot of life. It is a collection of words that has the power to pull its reader into the moment it describes and declares a connection.”

— Kate Gregoire 

“Words are for everyone. Writing is a form of self-expression. You do not have to be published to be a writer. You are a writer if you write.”

— Diane Puterbaugh

“For me, the poem teaches us how to recognize these things, that mysterious and patient presence that gently persuades us to create something from nothing.”

—Sandy Monfredo 

“Writing for me is a new living. I want the readers to feel like they have been there, they know this feeling/emotion I am talking about. I want my poetry to take them to the place I have been to, to the sea, to the heart of any and all that matters, to see it, to taste it, and belong to it.”

— Padmaja Battani