Paul Engle Quotes

There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman.

One of the things I learnt over the years is that there is a craft to writing, like there is a craft to acting. I hadn't done my apprenticeship as a writer. I did try to be a writer for hire but I'm not any good at it.

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.

You don't know how much artists go through to make it look so easy. It's all in the practice.

I saw I could rhyme words. It came simply to me. But I wrote some pretty horrible songs that I still have on tape.

When it comes to lyrics, I just write down a lot of things, and only a very tiny fraction of it, I think, is any good.

The process of composition, messing around with paragraphs and trying to make really good prose, is hardwired into my personality.

I think a poet, like a painter, should be a craftsperson.

I work best in rhyme and meter. I was most confident of myself in that way.

My paintings have gotten to be pretty popular and I've taken a little bit more interest in painting the last few years. In fact, my novel that I wrote not too long ago, 'The Hornet's Nest,' I painted the cover picture for it and I do a good bit of painting now.

There are only so many letters in the alphabet. When I talk to young musicians or authors and they ask for advice, I say, 'You gotta learn all the letters of your own personal alphabet. With music, you need to know all the different kinds of music and everything in and around your given instrument.'

Screenwriting is still a challenge for me. It's more technical than creative. You have to be a very good journeyman plumber and put the proper parts together. Then, if you can still inject a little bit of something worthwhile, you have done as much as can be expected.

I really wasn't equipped to be a writer when I left Oxford. But then I set out to learn. I've always had the highest regard for the craft. I've always felt it was work.

So one can say that I write all the time, that goes for the lyrics as well.

Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.

I was very committed to the process of composing, working at poems, putting things together and taking them apart like some kind of experimental filmmaker.

Write verse, not poetry. The public wants verse. If you have a talent for poetry, then don't by any means mother it, but try your hand at verse.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don't think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

Robert Frost had always said you mustn't think of the last line first, or it's only a fake poem, not a real one. I'm inclined to agree.

I write everything. It's my favorite part of what I do. And lyrics are my favorite thing.

Poetry is almost like my foundation for everything. I almost feel I am a better actor and writer because of it.

I've always liked writing. Even when I was in art school and thought I was going to be a gallery painter, I liked to pair my artwork with writing. And so that naturally led to drawing comics.

People don't stress enough that when they're writing lyrics, they are writing.

The productions of all arts are kinds of poetry and their craftsmen are all poets.

When I first wanted to be a writer, I learned to write prose by reading poetry.