KeenBrain
KeenBrain
KeenBrain

Billy Collins Quotes


Share this page on

Quotes by Billy Collins

Showing 11-20 of 84 Quotes by Billy Collins

Attempts to put my poems to music have had disastrous results in all cases. And the poem, if it's written with the ear, already has been set to its own verbal music as it was composed.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Attempts Been Cases Composed Disastrous Ear Had Music Own Poem Poems Put Results Set Verbal Written

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


The public is probably more suspicious of poets than women, and maybe for good reason.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Good Good Reason Maybe More Poets Public Reason Suspicious Than Women

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


The disappointing second novel is measured against the brilliant first novel - often no novel lives up to the first. Literary improvement seems like an unfair expectation.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Against Brilliant Disappointing Expectation First Improvement Like Literary Lives Measured Novel Often Second Seems Unfair Up

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Poems, for me, begin as a social engagement. I want to establish a kind of sociability or even hospitality at the beginning of a poem. The title and the first few lines are a kind of welcome mat where I am inviting the reader inside.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Am Begin Beginning Engagement Establish Even Few First Hospitality Inside Inviting Kind Lines Mat Me Poem Poems Reader Social Title Want Welcome Where I Am

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I think my poems are slightly underrated by the word 'accessible.'

~Billy Collins

Topics: Accessible Poems Slightly Think Underrated Word I Think

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


If an artist is driven primarily by social responsibility, I think the art probably suffers because, again, just as leadership has a rather defined end point or purpose, social responsibility would seem to have a very clear moral context.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Again Art Artist Because Clear Context Defined Driven End Just Leadership Moral Point Primarily Purpose Rather Responsibility Seem Social Social Responsibility Suffers Think Very Would I Think

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I don't write for an auditorium full of people. I don't write for the microphone; I write for the page.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Auditorium Full Microphone Page People Write I Write

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


When I write, I'm not trying to be funny. It's the way I look at the world.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Funny Look Trying Way World Write I Write

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


I have a stack of those plastic card hotel room keys that I picked up on this latest book tour. It's about a yard tall. Ah yes, a stack of lonely nights.

~Billy Collins

Topics: About Book Book Tour Card Hotel Hotel Room Keys Latest Lonely Nights Picked Plastic Room Stack Tall Those Tour Up Yard Yes Ah

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


The poem is not, as someone put it, deflective of entry. But the real question is, 'What happens to the reader once he or she gets inside the poem?' That's the real question for me, is getting the reader into the poem and then taking the reader somewhere, because I think of poetry as a kind of form of travel writing.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Because Entry Form Gets Getting Happens He He Or She Inside Kind Me Once Poem Poetry Put Question Reader Real She Someone Somewhere Taking Then Think Travel Writing I Think

Keywords: None


Suggest an Edit


Cite the source


Save to Favorites


Collect


Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Poet

Born: March 22nd, 1941

Links

Find Billy Collins on Amazon

Related Authors

Maya Angelou
Emily Dickinson
T. S. Eliot
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Robert Frost
Sylvia Plath
Edgar Allan Poe
Walt Whitman

Popular Authors

Thomas Aquinas Vladimir Lenin Post Malone Michel De Montaigne Alexander Pope Theodore Roosevelt Walt Whitman William Butler Yeats

Change your beliefs...change your life.

Get a related quote or insight every day.

(it's 100% free)

Follow Us On

Today's Birthdays

1882 - Franklin D. Roosevelt

1775 - Walter Savage Landor

1781 - Adelbert Von Chamisso

1846 - F. H. Bradley

1866 - Gelett Burgess

1909 - Saul Alinsky

1912 - Francis Schaeffer

1912 - Barbara Tuchman

1912 - Barbara W. Tuchman

1919 - Fred Korematsu

Birthdays on January 30th
All Birthdays

Popular Topics

Amazing Anger Famous Fitness Marriage Motivational Travel Women