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Billy Collins Quotes


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Quotes by Billy Collins

Showing 31-40 of 84 Quotes by Billy Collins

I try to write very fast. I don't revise very much. I write the poem in one sitting. Just let it rip. It's usually over in twenty to forty minutes. I'll go back and tinker with a word or two, change a line for some metrical reason weeks later, but I try to get the whole thing just done.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Back Change Done Fast Forty Get Go Just Later Line Minutes Much Over Poem Reason Revise Rip Sitting Some Thing Tinker Try Twenty Two Very Weeks Whole Word Write I Write

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I think if a poet wanted to lead, he or she would want the message to be unequivocally clear and free of ambiguity. Whereas poetry is actually the home of ambiguity, ambivalence and uncertainty.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Actually Ambiguity Ambivalence Clear Free He He Or She Home Lead Message Poet Poetry She Think Uncertainty Unequivocally Want Wanted Whereas Would I Think

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I don't want to sound like an aesthete, but one has to be true to the art. And that means being true to the tradition of the art but also being true to your own artistic vision.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Also Art Artistic Be True Being Like Means Own Sound Tradition True Vision Want Your

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I really have a distaste for poets who announce themselves at 50 yards; you know, here he comes, you know, with the beret and the cane and the cape and the whatever - whatever mishegas is part of the outfit there.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Announce Cane Cape Distaste He Here Know Outfit Part Poets Really Themselves Whatever Who Yards You

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I think it's good not to make demands on the reader too early. But as the poem goes on, I want the journey of the poem to lead into some interesting places.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Demands Early Goes Good Interesting Journey Lead Make Places Poem Reader Some Think Too Want I Think

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I think 'accessible' just means that the reader can walk into the poem without difficulty. The poem is not, as someone put it, deflective of entry.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Accessible Difficulty Entry Just Means Poem Put Reader Someone Think Walk Without I Think

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I'm very aware of the presence of a reader, and that probably is a reaction against a lot of poems that I do read which seem oblivious to my presence as a reader.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Against Aware Lot Oblivious Poems Presence Reaction Read Reader Seem Very Which

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I have my Poetry 180 project, which I've made my main project. We encourage high schools, because that's really where, for most people, poetry dies off and gets buried under other adolescent pursuits.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Adolescent Because Buried Dies Encourage Gets High High Schools Made Main Most Off Other People Poetry Project Pursuits Really Schools Where Which

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One of the ridiculous aspects of being a poet is the huge gulf between how seriously we take ourselves and how generally we are ignored by everybody else.

~Billy Collins

Topics: Aspects Being Between Else Everybody Everybody Else Generally Gulf How Huge Ignored Ourselves Poet Ridiculous Seriously Take

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The poets who have written the best poems about war seem to be the poets whose countries have experienced an invasion or vicious dictatorships.

~Billy Collins

Topics: About Best Countries Dictatorships Experienced Invasion Poems Poets Seem Vicious War Who Whose Written

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Poet

Born: March 22nd, 1941

Links

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