John Dryden Quotes

A novelist has a specific poetic license which also applies to his own life.

I've seen situations where I think comics are really unrealistic about what creative expression and what the artistic freedom, what that entails.

A poem is a cup of words open to the sky and wind in a bucket.

Why should not a poet's cat be winged as well as his horse?

If you go too far in fantasy and break the string of logic, and become nonsensical, someone will surely remind you of your dereliction....Pound for pound, fantasy makes a tougher opponent for the creative person.

In your language you have a form of poetry called the sonnet…There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That’s a very strict rhythm or meter…And each line has to end with a rigid pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet…But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants…You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you.

Once they're on paper, they're gone. I like to do as much with the words, as far as image goes, so that it's really left open for a lot of things, even though I remember a specific impression of something I had at the time. I can't say a song is about this or that; in fact, I wouldn't even want to. I just prefer to have people live it anyway they want. Because it's theirs after that. There's nothing I can do about it anymore

There are no laws by which we can write Iliads.

Poets and painters have the power to dare, I mean to dare to do whatever they may approve of.

Finding the medium that excites your imagination, that you love to play with and work in, is an important step to freeing your creative energies.

The world needs more Edwin Morgans, people who can take the language and swing it round their heads and don't care what you think.

When I am creating art, I have absolutely no social responsibility. It's like dreaming.

People should be stopped from writing poetry. There's far too much of it. And if they're any good, they'll go ahead anyways.

There are so many things in the world - in the cities - so much to see. Does art need to represent this variety and contribute to its proliferation? Can art be that free? The difficulties begin when you understand what it is that the soul will not permit the hand to make.

Also with that money comes the idea, "Let your imagination run wild." Which I think is a very dangerous thing. I think it's dangerous because you can get into pretty wacky territory. There are things that are too crazy.

I think it's possible to allow an artist to go beyond his borders and play.

Take care-there is no force more powerful than that of an unbridled imagination.

I'm an indulgent writer - I'm not sure, however, that's something I'm interested in changing. Writing should be indulgent: you should take big risks on the page, you should make big mistakes, you should be excessive at times. I let myself do as a writer what I probably would be less likely to allow as an editor.

The actor shouldn't edit themselves or be anxious. And the actors that I admire are always the ones who are inventive and their imaginative life in free-willing. It's a director's job to go, "No here, don't do that, go there."

Ethics are no more a part of poetry than theyare of painting.

Writers are lucky. Whatever the mood, no matter the longing, the writer can use his words to connect himself to any world he wishes to visit.

Writing poetry is a state of free float.

Dramatic reading and writing for kids can open a window to individuality and to expression that nothing else does, because all of a sudden the pressure is off and they just bring themselves to the table.

I worked at Disney many years ago. They just let me sit in a room for a couple of years and draw whatever I wanted to draw, so it's a very personal thing to me. Drawing and everything you do there is something meaningful and personal.