James St. James Quotes

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.

If I'm writing strictly for others, how does that show what I'm experiencing or thinking? I just got to a point where I realized I could be as personal as I wanted to be and people could relate to those situations if they so choose.

If I haven't any talent for writing books or newspaper articles, well, then I can always write for myself.

The whole point of diaries is that other people find them and read what you've put. I did once take to writing my inner thoughts on the computer at the end of other things I was writing and ended up faxing four pages of hideous stuff to my accountant so I don't do that now.

I often write things, and then I think it's too personal for the Moodies. It's not something that I could share with other guys to say.

The best writing really does come from the deepest, most private part of you.

I don't necessarily intend to publish posthumously, but I do like to write for myself.

I'm a firm believer in putting your experiences in your writing, of bleeding into the page.

A lot of what I write is very personal.

The most real dialogue for me is when I am alone, writing.

When you hear me sit at the piano by myself and do one of those super-personal, confessional songs, that's where my true voice is.

My best writing has always been in journals.

I love to write and I assure you I write regularly... But I write for myself, for my own pleasure. And I want to be left alone to do it.

If you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you.

If you want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you. Where you just put down what you think about life, what you think about things, what you think is fair and what you think is unfair.

But what is more to the point is my belief that the habit of writing thus for my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments. Never mind the misses and the stumbles.

It is not a waste to write beautiful prose or poetry for one person's eyes alone!

I am writing for myself and strangers. This is the only way that I can do it.

A game: say something. Close your eyes and say something. Anything, a number, a name. Like this (she closes her eyes): Two, two what? Two women. What do they look like? Wearing black. Where are they? In a park. . . . And then, what are they doing? Try it, it's so easy, why don't you want to play? You know, that's how I talk to myself when I'm alone, I tell myself all kinds of stories. And not only silly stories: actually, I live this way altogether.

There is a marvelous peace in not publishing. It's peaceful. Still. Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I live to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure. I don't necessarily intend to publish posthumously, but I do like to write for myself. I pay for this kind of attitude. I'm known as a strange, aloof kind of man. But all I'm doing is trying to protect myself and my work.

I kept a diary as a teenager but I never would have shared it with anyone. Still, I think it's very good practice to write things down.

There is a marvelous peace in not publishing ... I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure.

I sometimes write as if I were talking to myself, or to a mirror, or to someone for the last time. There's this element of confrontation.

I love writing. I've always written journals. I loved writing the book on living alone.