Philip Levine Quotes

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.

I write quite a lot of sonnets, and I think of them almost as prayers: short and memorable, something you can recite.

I read mostly poetry.

Poetry is the art which is technically within the grasp of everyone: a piece of paper and a pencil and one is ready.

I love playing with words and texture.

Well, I had this little notion - I started writing when I was eleven, writing poetry. I was passionately addicted to it; it was my great refuge through adolescence.

Poetry is a domestic art, most itself when most at home.

I love songwriting. It's second to my love for singing in how I express myself.

There are men who can write poetry, and there are men who can read balance sheets. The men who can read balance sheets cannot write.

Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.

I was a serious poet for quite a while and had little notebooks filled with poetry.

Well, I write a lot of poetry - that's where it usually all starts. I definitely want to show you guys sides of me - love, loss, heartbreak - all of that good stuff!

The exact day I became a poet was April 1, 1965, the day I bought my first typewriter.

Making music and writing kind of come from the same creative place.

I started playing guitar when I was 13. I'd written a few songs on the guitar over some time. I'd written a book of poetry, and I got a book of lyrics that I had when I was a kid.

Literature has always been the greatest fuel for my imagination.

My first love is literature.

I'm a wizard at poetry.

Poetry is all I write, whether for books or readings or for the National Theatre or for the opera house and concert hall or even for TV.

For better or worse, poetry is my life.

If there's one thing I've written that could survive into posterity, I'd want that to be the poetry.

As things get worse, poetry gets better because it becomes more necessary.

I like writing love songs. I really like romantic poetry.

I'm really into poetry.

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.