Isaac Watts Quotes

I always wanted to write poetry, even when I was very young.

What can a pencil do for all of us? Amazing things. It can write transcendent poetry, uplifting music, or life-changing equations; it can sketch the future, give life to untold beauty, and communicate the full-force of our love and aspirations.

I shall live badly if I do not write, and I shall write badly if I do not live.

With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence: they must not they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind.

I'm trying to do what Frank O'Hara did and remind myself there there's a lot of good stuff. I write about New York for my own mental health.

I once saw a picture in the paper of John Hegley with 'poet' written on his knuckles, and I thought that was pretty cool, so I was quite up front about it.

It all has to do with art - writing, painting, things I've done for a long time but just never had enough time to pursue. I have poetry - things that are designed for songs, but they're always poems first.

If I were to have a dream job, it would probably be a poet. Then again, I don't think I'm a very good poet!

Why do writers, say, give up a job in economics and decide to write poetry? Or, why do they give up a job in a bank and decide to paint, like Krishan Khanna? They want to convey something.

A poet is a man who puts up a ladder to a star and climbs it while playing a violin.

Competitions are for horses, not artists.

I knew I wanted to be creative but didn't know how.

I'd advise all you songwriters out there, if you're getting into it for the business, go home and get a job digging ditches or something. Get a life. You'll learn a lot more, and you won't write a lot of rotten poetry.

There's no one on the island telling them they're not good enough, so they just go ahead and sing and paint and write.

The art of life, of a poet's life, is, not having anything to do, to do something.

It may sound affected - but it is the act of creation itself, and it is equally exhilarating whether one is working on a teaspoon or a national bank.

Anyone can express himself or herself, but what writers and poets want to do in their work, more than simply express themselves, is communicate.

I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.

He is exactly the poem I wanted to write.

Genius is mainly an affair of energy, and poetry is mainly an affair of genius; therefore a nation whose spirit is characterized by energy may well be imminent in poetry - and we have Shakespeare.

One paradox of professional writing is that books written solely for money and/or acclaim will almost never be good enough to garner either.

You must write for yourself, above all. That is your only hope of creating something beautiful.

Keep me up till five because all your stars are out, and for no other reason…Oh dare to do it Buddy! Trust your heart. You’re a deserving craftsman. It would never betray you. Good night. I’m feeling very much over-excited now, and a little dramatic, but I think I’d give almost anything on earth to see you writing a something, an anything, a poem, a tree, that was really and truly after your own heart.

My desire was never to be famous. It was to try and create something interesting musically if I could.

When you consider what you would love to accomplish in your life but feel ill-prepared to bring it about, picture the eighty-nine Michelangelo living five centuries ago, painting, sculpting, and writing. Imagine he is telling you that you can create whatever you desire, and the great danger is not in having too much hope, but in reaching what you have perceived as hopeless.