Billy Collins Quotes

I do not believe that with a fictional character you can force yourself too far away from yourself. There has to be some of you in it.

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

I want to be a poet and have a chance to explore that and let people know what's really on my mind.

My poems are almost all written as Diane. I don't have any problems with that, and if other women choose to identify with this, I think that's terrific.

As I look over my work, I mean every time I look over my early work, I see, yes, I could do that then and then I could do that and that... That may be the hardest thing for a writer, at least for a poet, to tell what the identity of his work is.

All my characters have got a big slice of me in them. A big piece of me, because it's my dialogue and this is the way I think and talk.

I was really drawn to spoken-word style poetry. I loved the rhythms, and for some reason, I was just drawn to this poetry as a way of expressing my feelings, because I didn't have any other outlet.

I kind of always wanted my own music to just sound like, like me, I suppose, like if I was music it would be the music I make, I think.

Fiction is the thing I esteem most in my own work; I feel that, even if it's no good, only I could have written those books.

You, quote, find your voice, unquote, when you are able to invent this one character who resembles you, obviously, and probably is more like you than anyone else on earth, but is not the equivalent to you.

To me, writing is a matter of voice. I think like that. The expression I sometimes use to myself is 'actual song.' That what I do is somewhere on the line between speaking to you as I am now and actual song. And the things I love when I say one of those poems to myself - it's a little bit like singing, it's a little bit like speaking.

In all my characters, I try to find an iota of myself, and in Castle, I found a lot. He gets away with a lot, so that's fun.

I prefer writing originals.

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

Writing is not a competitive sport. Everyone that writes has his or her own voice.

Writing poetry, which for me was then saying how I felt about this and that, didn't help me to understand the world I lived in.

I guess I could say that I pursue questions that interest me in ways that interest me on the page, but that's awfully vague.

Once I wrote 'Atmosphere,' I thought, 'This is my story; it's me and my life and what I've gone through to get to where I am.' I'm not the best singer, but still. All of my albums are personal, but putting myself out there and singing is one more thing that makes me vulnerable - one more thing that people can fire shots at.

Identity for me is something that has to be played with and explored, and not become complacent about or uninterested in.

You write who you are somehow. Even if you try to not to. You can't help but write who you are. I'm just not a very cynical person. I believe in the humanity of people, whether it is just the guys in 'The Full Monty' or Aron Ralston.

There are bits of me in all my characters.

There is always going to be a little bit of me in each character.

To have a songwriter that wrote so specifically what I felt to be true... I've never been much of an actor either. If something is real for me, then I can do it.

My work is literally my voice.

Of course, I have to consider that I've written a lot of prose, but I do in my heart think of myself as being originally, and still primarily, a poet.