Ian Hamilton Finlay Quotes

I am a writer of fragments.

I'm a very conceptual writer.

First and foremost, I'm an oral storyteller - I'll make a poetic choice over a grammatical choice every single time.

When I write, I write everything from a rhythm point.

I do not think of literature as something confessional or therapeutic. I make sentences in order to be precise about experiences and things. I am urged by many things and no things in particular.

Poetry is not a matter of feelings, it is a matter of language. It is language which creates feelings.

I'm of the Samuel Goldwyn school of writing: If you need to send a message, call Western Union. Any messages people take away from my books are the ones they see in them.

Once they're on paper, they're gone. I like to do as much with the words, as far as image goes.

When you are writing literary writing, you are communicating something subtextual with emotions and poetry. The prose has to have a voice; it's not just typing. It takes a while to get that voice.

Poems seem to have a life of their own. They tell you when enough is enough.

The poetic act consists of suddenly seeing that an idea splits up into a number of equal motifs and of grouping them; they rhyme.

Poetry; a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.

I was very committed to the process of composing, working at poems, putting things together and taking them apart like some kind of experimental filmmaker.

Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don't think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.

Poetry seems to be the only weapon able to beat language, using language's own means.

I wrote them kind of consecutively, starting with 'Holy,' and then '1950,' 'Talia,' 'Upper West Side,' 'Make My Bed,' and I was kind of like, 'This is it.' It felt right. It felt complete. It felt like a sentence. I really enjoyed making it.

The way that I process and make writing work is I'm really telling true stories; I'm just putting them in a cape and putting an 'S' on its chest.

I write the occasional poem. I think my dabbling in poetry makes me better at screenplays. Poetry teaches the value of condensing, the importance of talking in a few words.

In school, my favourite class was when we were given a subject for an essay on which we could freewheel. And poetry: I've always written it and loved the way words interact, in meaning and in sound.

I like bringing my poet brain and sensibility to lyrics I write.

When I really want to be soothed and reminded of why people bother to fiddle with sentences, I often read poetry.

Literature is the stringing together of pictures in words.

But poetry is my life. Poetry is what matters to me.