Edward Hirsch Quotes

Patiently and with industry did I apply myself to study, for although I felt the impossibility of giving life to my productions, I did not abandon the idea of representing nature.

For a writer, life is always too short to write. I will just try my best during what remains of my life.

It is our art that has an opportunity to leave a footprint in the sand. They don't wrap fish in our work.

I've achieved what every artist wants, which is that some of their work will outlive them.

I admire Ginsberg as a poet, despite the fact that he seems not to know when he is being good and when he is bad. But he will last, or at least those poems will last.

He was the only person caught in the collapse, and afterward, most of his work was recovered too, and it is still spoken of, when it is noted, with high regard, though seldom played.

Well, one always has an instinct to be a painter, and I've done quite a lot of painting at one time or another, though not with any public success.

As soon as I can afford a studio space, I'll paint again.

I never wanted to be anything but a writer, and I never let go of it.

The painter leaves his mark. And I just put in two statues in Rhode Island that I'm working on. And I think that's going to make me last longer than me.

The commitment to working at poetry is important because a poet is a maker, and a poem is a made thing. We have to honor our feelings by working to transform them into something meaningful and lasting.

I want a body of work; I want a good story after a good story.

I originally just wanted to be an artist.

One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.

Why does any novelist keep writing long after they've made money? Because they've failed to write the perfect novel.

I don't have keepsakes from shows, really. It's in the work. It's all there.

As to what I would like to be, it is difficult to say. An artist of some kind. If nothing else I shall always study the Arts.

Making movies is an effort is an attempt to leave a trace of your existence.

In Brazil, when you say you're going to be an artist you always get that point of view that this is a crazy career and you might not make it. In my case, it kind of happened.

I really want to make art. I want to create something that's going to have a lasting impact.

To desire to write poems that endure-we undertake such a goal certain of two things: that in all likelihood we will fail, and if we succeed we will never know it

I wanted to become a painter for a while. I think it was because I was lazy.

My aim in life is to make pictures and drawings, as many and as well as I can; then, at the end of my life... looking back with love and tender regret, and thinking, 'Oh, the pictures I might have made!'

I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems.