Socrates Quotes

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.

The poet doesn't invent. He listens.

How do poems grow? They grow out of your life.

Poetry is a process of getting back to the unconscious. Hence, I am always writing-even when I'm not facing the white space. I feel writers are like reservoirs of images. We take in what is around us.

There are certain phrases in books of mine, and I don't know where they came from, or how I was capable of thinking up these formulations. It's only in the heat of composition that these things occur to you.

Only poetry inspires poetry.

Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.

Angel and Muse approach from without; the Angel sheds light and the Muse gives form (Hesiod learned of them). Gold leaf or chiton-folds: the poet finds his models in his laurel coppice. But the Duende, on the other hand, must come to life in the nethermost recesses of the blood.

Mozart never composed anything, ever! He copied what was written on his soul.

I'm a great believer in letting lyrics just flow out, wherever they come from.

To the poet fated to be a poet, self-expression is as natural and as involuntary as breathing is to us ordinary mortals.

In a poem, the words happen; they just come. I let them. Otherwise, I wouldn't write. To interfere with what is happening is to distort the poem. Just a very small degree of intelligence and supervision is necessary. Very tactful. Any revision later that violates the text as it came, that begins rewriting the words, is fake.

In English, the sounds and melodies I created were an inspiration to me, and words came to me as I explored the sounds, and from there I was able expand on the meaning.

Science is for those who learn, poetry is for those who know.

I do not go in search of poetry. I wait for poetry to visit me.

The bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought to be conscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious.

I don't know where my songs come from... If I knew, I'd know too much, more than we are allowed on this plane.

The aim of the poet, or other artist, is first to make something; and it's impossible to make something out of words and not communicate.

The few bad poems which occasionally are created during abstinence are of no great interest.

There is a kind of mysticism to writing.

I'm not like a professional writer with professional skills. Songs kind of come into my head the same way they did when I was a kid. I say I'm an overgrown kindergarten kid. I work on songs.

I think, what happened with 'Dead Silence' is that other people told us that we should be doing that and now that I look back, I realize, 'should' is not a word that comes into an art. It's whatever you're feeling like doing.

It's very strange: if you're a philosopher or musician or an artist, people automatically believe you can see the future. Even if they don't like you, they accept your vision as an individual.

When I wrote 'Grand Illusion,' I was making it up as we went along. I wrote this stuff and tried to do the best job I could.

Sometimes you do know where the ideas are coming from and sometimes you don't. You might get a song coming through that you just don't know about.