Joseph Brodsky Quotes

I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist.

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement.

If a poet interprets a poem of his own he limits its suggestibility.

I guess the important thing for young writers is to read.

You searched through all my poets, From Sappho through to Auden, I saw the book fall from your hands, As you slowly died of boredom.

The works of great poets have never been read by mankind, for only great poets can read them.

He taught me literature, and he actually taught me how to read. He was my personal mentor.

I think technique can be taught but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, and I see writing and reading as completely related. One almost couldn't exist without the other.

You can't write if you don't read.

I have a huge passion for literature.

I'm not a writer. I like being a reader.

A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.

The more poetry you have in the head, the more poetry you will understand because you will be getting to the roots of what it is that makes people write poetry at all.

I have friends who read my books in Greek.

You learn to write by reading, and my experiences and tastes as a reader are pretty wide.

I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now.

We simply have not kept in touch with poetry.

Reading is a huge part of life.

Literature has always been a part of my life. I studied history and literature in college. My mother is a novelist; I grew up around books.

A poet can survive everything but a misprint.

I absolutely love reading.

I really came to literature through poetry.

It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.

I enjoyed learning the poems, but I didn't understand of what use they might possibly be. ‘They'll keep you company on the day you have no books to read,' my teacher said.

At times it has been doubtful to me if Emerson really knows or feels what Poetry is at its highest, as in the Bible, for instance, or Homer or Shakspeare. I see he covertly or plainly likes best superb verbal polish, or something old or odd