Michael Jackson Quotes

I think of poetry as something out there in the world and within each of us. I don't mean that everyone can write poetry - it's an art, a craft, it requires enormous commitment like any art. But there's a core of desire in each of us and poetry goes to and comes from that core. It's the social, economic, institutional gap that makes it difficult.

I wasn't quite used to writing a diary - I didn't understand why people did it - but I wrote down notes and they went into a poem.

Often with good sentiments we produce bad literature.

Writing is a subtle art that is reached mostly by self-discovery and experimentation.

It's just writing about things, feelings, not that we're dark or depressed...just as much as anyone else is.

You have to sink way down to a level of hopelessness and desperation to find the book that you can write.

Writing does not exclude the full life; it demands it.

I keep a daily journal of whatever weird thought comes into my mind, like when I had a dream I was in North Dakota in the middle of a blizzard and for some reason the Egyptian pyramids were there, too - that I was able to shuffle into the book.

I never imagined I'd write a book.

You must find your own quiet center of life, and write from that to the world.

Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.

Heaven knows, I've exposed myself in my novels through the use of fantasy and imagination... now my new book is about what really happened to me... not my heroines.

Writing was my route to creative expression, and I needed to write about the things that interested me.

This book was company for me - I wrote these things when I was in hotels, far from where I normally live. I never intended to publish it.

I can only speak for myself and my own music, because that is what I am most familiar with, and I write about things that I am living or experiencing.

A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion.

For what is a poem but a hazardous attempt at self-understanding: it is the deepest part of autobiography.

I worked as a carpenter for a few years. I began writing. I wrote a book about my time in Africa - that came out in 1988 - called 'The Village of Waiting.'

My identity started developing through the songs I was writing.

I wouldn't be making films if I just wanted to express some specific ideas; then I would be writing essays or something.

A lot of my songs are about things that concern me personally, not a heightened version of myself or any of the characters that I play.

As a writer, penning down personal stuff was not easy for me, as it was way too close to my heart.

I always find another version of myself in each of my films.

When you write, what's going on in your life shines through in the songs.

Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes.