Joseph Brodsky Quotes

As a young poet, you need corroboration, and that's what publication does.

Publication in 'The New Yorker' meant everything, and it's no exaggeration to say that it changed my life.

I'm not going to give it the big 'I am' now that I'm a New York Times bestseller.

I don't concern myself with award. I'd been to the party enough times to know it really didn't matter.

You can't be a good actor if you get too affected by fame. Because then you're not real, and you're not really wanting more. You look at a lot of actors who, before they were famous, did a lot of amazing work, and once they got too big, it just got off.

I'm a writer. I never expected to be recognised on the street. I never expected to get that kind of coverage, good or bad. I never expected to sell as many books as I have.

The Pulitzer has nothing to do with me; it's more about people's perceptions of me, whatever they may be. I'm not being humble - I honestly do not and cannot think about that. It's a lovely piece of crystal on my bookcase, but that's all it is to me.

It surprised me, the feeling I got when I won the Oscar for 'Scent of a Woman.' It was a new feeling. I'd never felt it. I don't see my Oscar much now. But when I first got it, there was a feeling for weeks afterward that I guess is akin to winning a gold medal in the Olympics.

I didn't care where my works were published.

I was 82 years old before Who's Who thought I was enough of a big shot to do a piece on me.

I'd been writing poems for many years, but most of them I didn't like. Then, when I was 23, I wrote one I did like, sent it to 'The Paris Review' - the highest publication I could think of - and they accepted it. No other moment in my literary life has quite come close to that.

Sometimes I say to myself, 'Oh, I wish I could win a Tony Award', although I'm not that bothered.

Awards are meaningless to me, and I have nothing but disdain for anyone who actively campaigns to get one.

What would have become of me if no one had wanted to read my books? And don't forget all those who have written of me.

I always knew I was a star And now, the rest of the world seems to agree with me.

I'm a songwriter, principally, and I was real excited that people liked my songs, but you get a bit of an ego about it.

Fame won't make you feel any better about yourself.

I never did anything about my stardom, it never meant anything to me.

I am a writer and always was; being a writer is an integral part of my identity. Being published, being well regarded, is a component of that identity.

When I got recognized as a writer, when I got the Emmy, I was more excited than the Emmys I had gotten as an actor.

You have the feeling that if you get a Pulitzer, you're somehow set for life.

If this fame, which people call my lucky break, were to stop tomorrow, I shouldn't care.

After I won the Pulitzer, there was this sense of, 'OK, that's enough for you. Now go away.' What I wanted was to keep writing, keep working. But no one would produce anything of mine they didn't think would be as big as 'night, Mother.'

It just feels good to know the work I did, people like it and love it - and continue to like and love it. It makes me feel real good that, after 20 years, 'Regulate' is still in heavy rotation all over the United States and all over the world.

I used to say that winning the Oscar means being back at the Beverly Hills Hotel at 1 A.M. feeling empty. It's the industry voting. It doesn't come from God. It doesn't change your life, really.