Poetic Verse Quotes

Obviously we had to study Shakespeare at school, but to be honest, I was not a fan. I found the language very difficult, and I didn't enjoy watching it or studying it. I auditioned five times for the Royal Shakespeare Company early on in my career, and I didn't even get past the first rounds.

People have been writing songs and poems since the time we had brains.

Shakespeare's work is like a good song: you never really forget the main lines.

Shakespeare's language does not require a British accent. It requires a facility with language, and that's all.

Lyrics are coming to you all the time. I get inspiration in the middle of the night.

In my songs, I'm not saying something that's never been said before. The have lyrics aren't going to blow people away. It's the emotion and the melody that drive it home.

I read Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet, every day.

You can be very efficient with lyrics, and you can get the heart fluttering or soaring or make someone cry with a really amazing dance song.

When you're looking for good lyrics, you turn to Kendrick Lamar, you turn to J Cole, you turn to Wale, you turn to Chance the Rapper, you turn to Rapsody. You don't turn to Post Malone.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon.

Novelists get to say plenty in their massive tomes; rock singers only get four-minute songs with two verses and a chorus' worth of lyrics, and so there's a real pleasure in accessing the intelligence behind the music, even if it doesn't qualify as 'great literature.'

I've never really had a desire to do Shakespeare. For me, it's just too many lines.

I don't do Shakespeare. I don't talk in that kind of broken English.

I'd always loved poetry and I'd always loved writing music and composing music, but I hadn't thought of putting the two together until around that time.

I think I'm different from a lot of singer-songwriters because some of my favorite singer-songwriters told stories. Like John Prine.

I think I enjoy Sondheim so much because of the lyrics. The lyrics, the cornucopia of options.

Catchy lyrics are being given more importance.

In hip-hop, I wasn't very focused on delivering a message. It was just a string of lines that didn't connect. What I wanted to do is write stories... and affect someone's emotions with that song. I think as a soul singer, I'm able to accomplish that.

In Latin America, people want you to write beautiful melodies and words. But there are also songs that do well because they show the reality of life.

But then you have to write a song, so at that point, I picked up the reins and started to write lyrics.

I always did go against the singer-songwriter form. I think I've always had a lot of storytelling songs.

Some say that Cusk has no sense of humour, but expecting giggles from this writer would be akin to expecting sonnets from Benny Hill.

The way Shakespeare wrote Fallstaff is with a heightened language and everything.

I can make a song up about anything: garbage, the weather, things in the news.

I did that Grammys thing - I did a little freeform poem.