T. S. Eliot Quotes

I believe that poetry should communicate.

Poetry is not only a set of words which are chosen to relate to each other; it is something which goes much further than that to provide a glimpse of our vision of the world.

Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.

I don't try to call myself a poet. But I know that my stuff is pretty literal, in that the themes are pretty simple and on the surface.

A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at metaphorically.

I think many people love poetry who don't know they love it. People are sometimes afraid of poetry, or they've been introduced to poetry that doesn't speak to them.

Poetry is that art which selects and arranges the symbols of thought in such a manner as to excite the imagination the most powerfully and delightfully.

Poetry being the sign of that which all men desire, even though the desire be unconscious, intensity of life or completeness of experience, the universality of its appeal is a matter of course.

The object of poetic activity is essentially language: whatever his beliefs and convictions, the poet is more concerned with words than with what these words designate.

I like poems that are complex.

Too many people in the modern world view poetry as a luxury, not a necessity like petrol. But to me it's the oil of life.

Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

If poetry alters the way in which the reader views the world, then it has had its desired effect.

Poetry is one of the destinies of speech... One would say that the poetic image, in its newness, opens a future to language.

Poetry is the deification of reality.

I'm very attracted to poetry for all the reasons someone likes poetry. The notion of compression seems to fit my personality.

My work should be seen as poetry.

I'm a big fan of lyrics - lyrics are the thing that move me in certain ways.

So the best way to understand poetry, which is made by men, is to imitate, and that goes back to making work as a kind of doorway into new work, as opposed to making work as a mirror of the old work.

I think that's what poets try to do: They try to sidestep neurology and go straight to meaning.

When I really want to be soothed and reminded of why people bother to fiddle with sentences, I often read poetry.

I also write poems, so that is something that I really enjoy.

Slowly poetry becomes visual because it paints images, but it is also musical: it unites two arts into one.

But poetry is my life. Poetry is what matters to me.