Philip Pullman Quotes

Let me read you some of my poetry. My poetry just takes me to another level.

To write regular verses destroys an infinite number of fine possibilities, but at the same time it suggests a multitude of distant and totally unexpected thoughts.

If I were to have a dream job, it would probably be a poet. Then again, I don't think I'm a very good poet!

I really wanted to be a poet - until I realized that I really didn't have what it took to be a poet.

There are probably many, many people who are better writers than me.

I prefer writing originals.

I wish I could write lyrical poems, but I just write the way they come.

I defer to all these other American poets who, for some reason, I both envy and admire.

I love the feeling of creating pictures in someone's mind just by spelling out the right lyrical combination.

But I can only write what the muse allows me to write. I cannot choose, I can only do what I am given, and I feel pleased when I feel close to concrete poetry - still.

I'm an amalgam of the 19th-century romantics and the beat poets.

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average.

I think that there are fiction writers for whom that works well. I could never do it. I feel as if, by the time I see that it's a poem, it's almost written in my head somewhere.

The good poet sticks to his real loves, those within the realm of possibility. He never tries to hold hands with God or the human race.

I am just an artist.

In those days, it didn't take much imagination to come up with something that required great lyric development skills. You just thought of an experience that you might have gone through, and write it down.

I don't think poetry is something that can be taught. We can encourage young writers, but what you can't teach them is the very essence of poetry.

I am not quite a poet but I am something of the kind.

There's never been a moment where I sat down at my drawing board and thought, 'I'm a pro!'

I'm a lousy writer, and it shows when I try to write poetry.

I ain't no author, man... my writing skills are not of 'New York Times' best-seller quality, trust and believe it ain't. My vocabulary ain't.

Catch me on a good day, I think half of my books aren't too bad. Catch me on a bad day, I think I've never written a good line.

I write poetry anyway and have for years and years. For me, putting fiction and poetry together is like the best of both worlds.

I just write the books that I think I would want to read.

As a writer, I absorb stories, allow them to churn within my own head and heart - often for years - until I find a way of telling them that fits both my time and temperament.