Literature Quotes

"Words are not ornaments—they are instruments of thought."

"Words have weight and consequence."

"To write is to participate in the construction of reality."

"The voice we find as writers is the voice of our authentic selves."

"The poet's concern must often be with the articulation of the reach of the soul."

"The function of poetry is not to communicate ideas primarily, but to convey emotional experience."

"I am trying to capture the very essence of American experience."

"Poetry must grapple with the realities of its time."

"Poetry is the language of the deepest human longings."

"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his own."

"The written word carries the weight of intention."

"The written word is a form of immortality."

"The work of the poet is to make the familiar strange again."

"Poetry is the supreme fiction by which we live."

"Poetry speaks the language of the soul."

"The power of words can transform lives."

"Business documents and school-books are the poetry of my world."

"The purpose of art is not decoration; it is communication."

"Language is our only real tool for understanding the world."

"Words must be chosen as precisely as a surgeon chooses instruments."

"To write is to resist the death of meaning."

"Language itself is a broken instrument, yet it remains our only tool for truth."

"The poet speaks to the depths we dare not acknowledge in ourselves."

"All books are either dreams or swords."

"Literature preserves the human spirit across time."

"The poet speaks of the world as if seeing it for the first time."

"Words are the only paradise from which we cannot be expelled."

"Poetry is a way of closing the distance between what we feel and what we can express."

"The written word has power that transcends the moment of its creation."

"The world needs poets more than ever to help us understand ourselves."