Tracy K. Smith Quotes

Writing poetry is talking to oneself; yet it is a mode of talking to oneself in which the self disappears; and the product's something that, though it may not be for everybody, is about everybody.

My work is has always been very, very personal.

The reason I write is that I'm not in dialogue with my emotions; writing puts me in touch with myself.

It's why you create characters: so you can argue with yourself.

Poetry is the most intimate of all writing. I want to speak first from me to myself and then from me to you.

I feel like the 'Supernova' record, those songs are very me. It's a more honest representation of me than any record I have made prior to that.

'Sally' is just a song that I wrote talking to my alter ego. When I write, I don't really consciously say, 'This is what I've been going through in my life, and I'm gonna put this into words.' It's just a song that I kinda went in and did. Then, listening back to it, I realized, 'I'm talking to myself.'

My art is rooted in a single reflection: why am I not as others are? ... my art gives meaning to my life.

Living alone, you can do so many fantastic things I've learned. You can like, walk around and have so many conversations with yourself and sing your thoughts. I think I'm the only one that does that.

I'm interested in trying to explore what I think is the truth at a given time in my life, and part of the process of being honest is - in my mind - talking about the idea that you're watching a movie.

I sit in my new room and write everything down. My heart never stops talking.

Anyone who has problems, or worries, anyone who laughs and cries, anyone who feels can write. It's only talking on paper... talking about the things that matter to us.

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

I'm not one of those people who writes long soliloquies.

You find out what you think by talking to yourself.

I'm shy, and I can hide behind my acting and discover the truth about myself because it's cathartic in that way. But I tend not to read reviews.

I'm self-entertaining. My dialogue is with myself.

I don't like talking about myself. I don't like talking about these introspective things.

I'm sick of being self-referential. I don't want to do any more songs that can be accused of being personal.

It is less fun to talk about what I am feeling rather than what I am thinking. Saying 'I feel awesome' isn't really interesting or enquiring.

We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.

I try to say something about the human condition whenever I can when I'm lucky.

I used to love writing in my journal.

My songs are just little letters to me.

Go on thinking that you don't need to be read and you'll find that it may become quite true: no one will feel the need tom read it because it is written for yourself alone; and the public won't feel any impulse to gate crash such a private party.