All Anne Stevenson Quotes
I have always made my own rules, in poetry as in life - though I have tried of late to cooperate more with my family. I do, however, believe that without order or pattern poetry is useless.
Anne Stevenson
75% of people like this quote
I dislike literary jargon and never use it. Criticism has only one function and that is to help readers read and understand literature. It is not a science, it is an aid to art.
Anne Stevenson
61% of people like this quote
Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly.
Anne Stevenson
58% of people like this quote
I play with language a great deal in my poems, and I enjoy that. I try to condense language, that is, I try to express complicated but I hope real emotions as simply as possible. But that doesn't mean the poems are simple, just that they are as truthful as I can make them.
Anne Stevenson
56% of people like this quote
I think a poet, like a painter, should be a craftsperson.
Anne Stevenson
56% of people like this quote
I work very hard on all my poems, but most of the work consists of trying not to sound as if I had worked. I try to make them sound as natural as possible, but within a quite strict form, which to my ears has a lot to do with musical rhythm and sound.
Anne Stevenson
55% of people like this quote
There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic.
Anne Stevenson
54% of people like this quote
I married a young Englishman in Cambridge in 1955 and have lived in Britain every since.
Anne Stevenson
53% of people like this quote
Sylvia Plath was just a month and a half older than I, and when she committed suicide I was only 30 - and very shocked and sorry. I never knew her personally.
Anne Stevenson
51% of people like this quote
Poets should ignore most criticism and get on with making poetry.
Anne Stevenson
51% of people like this quote
I'm not really quiet or shy. Ask any of my friends! But I always ground my poetry in life itself. Poetry is an art of language, though, so I am always aware of every word's meaning, or multiple meanings.
Anne Stevenson
51% of people like this quote
I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas.
Anne Stevenson
51% of people like this quote
I write, or used to write, to explain to myself situations I couldn't otherwise solve or understand. Meditation comes very naturally to me.
Anne Stevenson
50% of people like this quote
A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties.
Anne Stevenson
49% of people like this quote
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