While poetry was less professionalized than it is now, I still had this urge to win prizes and … - Denise Duhamel

Same topic Authors

Quote of the day

You know, kicking people's butts with round-edged boots is good, but with pointy shoes, it's even better.

Denise Duhamel

While poetry was less professionalized than it is now, I still had this urge to win prizes and see my work in magazines, to get an "A," as though poetry could be graded. I wish I had been more patient and less frantic about getting published.

Winning, Wish, Magazines, Win, Published

Same Author Quotes

I believe it's impossible to write good poetry without reading. Reading poetry goes straight to my psyche and makes me want to write. I meet the muse in the poems of others and invite her to my poems. I see over and over again, in different ways, what is possible, how the perimeters of poetry are expanding and making way for new forms.

Believe, Different, Good, Reading, Writing

I don't know if there are topics that I unconsciously avoid, but as soon as they pop up in my writing, I try to take on those topics, whether or not I publish the poems.

Avoid, Know, Topics, Trying, Writing

Writing is performative - and while, yes, the words in essence will be there "forever," poems are often about ecstatic moments rather than trying to pin down a particular truth of an event.

Ecstatic, Essence, Event, Forever, Writing

The spoken word community was significant in making me want to write accessible and urgent poems. Bob Holman, in particular, was an impressive figure.

Bob, Community, Figure, Holman, Write, Writing

Jean Valentine and Jane Cooper were my professors at Sarah Lawrence College - and they were uncompromised in their art. They gave me models of how to live one's life as a poet.

Art, College, Lawrence, Models, Professors, Valentine

Similar Quotes

Pauline Marois

You know, kicking people's butts with round-edged boots is good, but with pointy shoes, it's even better.

Good, Kicking It, People, Pointy, Shoes

Nat Hentoff

That is what is happening with the Tea Parties. I wrote a column called "The Second American Revolution" about the fact that people are acting for themselves as it happened with the Sons of Liberty which spread throughout the colonies. That was a very important awakening in this country.

Country, Fact, Party, Revolution, Son, Throughout

Kurt Vonnegut

Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer.

Bonds, Book, Fertilizer, Flower, Roots

Amby Burfoot

I have learned that there is no failure in running, or in life, as long as you keep moving. It's not about speed. And gold medals. It's about refusing to be stopped. you might find that one particular direction proves difficult, but there are many directions on a compass. Infinite, in fact. As long as you keep searching, you'll find your winning way.

Directions, Gold, Moving, Running, Searching, Winning

Ray Bradbury

Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.

Bipolar, Depends, Insane, Insanity, Relative