James Fenton Quotes

As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done.

She assumes that skill will guide her fingertips, that shapely lines will uncoil out of the pencil the moment she starts. Surely talent is a thing curled deep inside, just waiting to be exercised, and at the slightest invitation it will stretch, shake itself, make itself known? Talent, it seems, is not so insistent.

I found the poems in the fields And only wrote them down

For a man to become a poet (witness Petrarch and Dante), he must be in love, or miserable.

Poems come from incomplete knowledge.

He who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires to be a great poet, must first become a little child. He must take to pieces the whole web of his mind. He must unlearn much of that knowledge which has perhaps constituted hitherto his chief title to superiority. His very talents will be a hindrance to him.

Writing a book is like torture that you don't know, but after it's done and there it is. It's a joy like unlike anything else, I think it's the closest that a man can come to knowing what is feels like to have a baby.

They wanted to come in after the pounds", explained Pooh, "so I let them. It's the best way to write poetry, letting things come.

Poetry is engendered in solitude, so what better meter for it than the clip of a buckskin horse?

Any time is the time to make a poem.

A natural talent is required; for, when Nature opposes, everything else is in vain; but when Nature leads the way to what is most excellent, instruction in the art takes place, which the student must try to appropriate to himself by reflection, becoming an early pupil in a place well adapted for instruction. He must also bring to the task a love of labor and perseverance, so that the instruction taking root may bring forth proper and abundant fruits.

While pensive poets painful vigils keep, Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep.

I never really took any acting classes. I'm just a natural ham, I guess.

After writing all day I go for a walk and see a piece of architecture i want to photograph and i have to take a picture and later a poem comes in my mind.

For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew. I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew.

For a poet, making poems is a way of viewing the world, being in the world, breathing.

Our bodies are garbage heaps: we collect experience, and from the decomposition of the thrown-out eggshells, spinach leaves, coffee grinds, and old steak bones out of our minds come nitrogen, heat, and very fertile soil. Out of this fertile soil bloom our poems and stories. But this does not come all at once. It takes time. Continue to turn over and over the organic details of your life until some of them fall through the garbage of discursive thoughts to the solid ground of black soil.

because talent alone doesn't make an artist

The poets down here don't write nothin' at all, they just stand back and let it all be.

I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came.

My method is simple: not to bother about poetry. It must come of its own accord. Merely whispering its name drives it away.

The best craftsmanship always leaves holes and gaps... so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash or thunder in.