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Simon Armitage Biography

Simon Robert Armitage CBE (born 26 May 1963) is an English poet, playwright and novelist. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds. On 19 June 2015, Armitage was elected to the part-time position of Oxford Professor of Poetry, succeeding Geoffrey Hill.

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Simon Armitage Quotes

As far as I can tell, there are two kinds of poets: those who want to tell stories and sing songs, and those who want to work out the chemical equation for language and pass on their experiments as poetry.

Art, Kinds, Pass, Song, Tell, Two

You’re beautiful because when you were born, undiscovered planets lined up to peep over the rim of your cradle and lay gifts of gravity and light at your miniature feet

Beautiful, Feet, Gifts, Lay, Light, Undiscovered

This misfortune you find is of your own manufacture.

Karma, Manufacture, Misfortune, Misfortunes

In all the poems I've written I've not really engaged in politics, and when I've found myself moving in that direction I've always stopped myself.

Direction, Engaged, Found, Moving, Poems, Politics

And wonder, dread and war have lingered in that land where loss and love in turn have held the upper hand.

War, Loss, Hands, Love, Land, Upper

Killing time in the precinct, I find a copy of one of my early volumes in a dump-bin on the pavement outside the charity shop. The price is 10p. It is a signed copy. Under the signature, in my own handwriting, are the words, "To mum and dad".

Dad, Handwriting, Killing, Precinct, Signatures, Volumes

I have to make myself write, sometimes. In the space between poems, you somehow forget how to do it, where to begin. It was good to be task - based for a while. I just came downstairs each day, picked the one I was going to do that day, and wrote.

Came, Space, Task, Tasks, Write, Writing

Where does the hand become the wrist? where does the neck become the shoulder? The watershed and then the weight, whatever turns up and tips us over that razor's edge between something and nothing, between one and the other.

Doe, Hand, Hands, Shoulder, Turns, Weight

I wondered if people might not have had enough of Simon Armitage and wondered whether I hadn't had enough of Simon Armitage.

Armitage, Enough, Had Enough, Might, People, Wondered

This misfortune you find is of your own manufacture. Keep hold of what you have, it will harm no other, for hatred comes home to the hand that chose it.

Chose, Hands, Harm, Hatred, Home, Misfortune

It’s never going to be very mainstream. One reason is that poetry requires concentration, both on the part of the writer and the reader. But it’s kind of unkillable, poetry. It’s our most ancient artform and I think it’s more relevant today than ever, because it’s one person saying what they really believe.

Believe, Concentration, Saying, Thinking, Today

I once stood in the middle of New York city watching my name go round the electronic zipper sign in Times Square and I felt pretty thrilled, but not quite as thrilled as I felt when I saw my name in the Examiner for the first time.

Examiner, New York, Round, Squares, Zipper, Zippers

People who read poetry, for example, like the feel, the heft and the smell of a book.

Book, People, Read, Smell

I intend 'Dämmerung' to be an ironic meditation on the financial rewards of poetry and a tragicomic lament on the passing of time and the changes in literary taste. The other poets mentioned are my poetic cohort from the U. K. I wrote the piece in situ, as it were, while making a television documentary about World War I in Germany.

Intend, Ironic, Meditation, Passing, Poetic, War

Somebody will be able to crack ebook files in the same way that people cracked music files a decade ago. An author could have worked for three years on his book, have someone buy it for their Kindle for £6. 99 and then see it shared with everyone in the world for free.

Book, Crack, People, Way, Years

The Huddersfield that I like best is a large town with a big heart and an open mind.

Heart, Huddersfield, Like, Mind, Towns

If you were going to choose a way of making your way in this world and a place to start from, you might not choose poetry and you might not choose Huddersfield.

Might, Place, Start, Way, World

We still need a voice that thinks before it speaks.

Needs, Speaks, Thinking, Thinks, Voice

The ordinary can be absolutely miraculous.

Miraculous, Ordinary