For me, there is a paradox in poetry, which is like the paradox in tragedy. You have the most terrible subject, but it's in a form that is so sensually gratifying that it connects the surviving heart to the despairing intellect. Tony Harrison More Quotes by Tony Harrison More Quotes From Tony Harrison I need to look back on my poetic ventures, make sense of them as a whole, and move forward... and to experiment without external demands. Tony Harrison forward need back look Honours seem to be the nature of British life. It's horrible. Maybe I'm mad, but the older I get, the less I want to have honours loaded on me. Tony Harrison me mad nature life I really admire the great Japanese artists who could change their name three times in a lifetime. You could get rid of one and renew yourself. Tony Harrison yourself great you change You get early inoculation against the idea of success if you're a poet. When I published my first collection of sonnets, I sold about five copies; now kids study them for A level. Wanting to be successful in that other world of money or fame is not interesting. Poetry isn't like that, and it never has been. Tony Harrison you money poetry success I wanted to learn Latin and Greek and become a poet and acquire power over language. I only understand this clearly in retrospect, that my ability to study came from a hunger to learn all the resources of articulation. Tony Harrison understand ability language power Poetry is all I write, whether for books or readings or for the National Theatre or for the opera house and concert hall or even for TV. Tony Harrison concert theatre poetry house It's been an obsession with me from childhood, the horrors of the twentieth century. Tony Harrison been me childhood obsession Looking back, fire images have been constant in my poetry. As a boy, it was my job to light the fire each morning, and I remember the celebratory bonfires at the end of the war. It was from staring into fire that I began my first poetry. Tony Harrison light fire morning war There's a kind of despair about whether art can really do anything, but you have to incorporate that despair into the way you work. I try to soak my work in my sense of futility and fury. Tony Harrison you work way art The imagination has its limits, and you have to face up to that. Tony Harrison face you limits imagination I'd rather climb Everest than go for a walk in the park. Tony Harrison park climb walk go I was brought up on music hall, and at the same time, I was studying Greek at the age of 12. Tony Harrison studying music age time I like a direct relationship between actor and audience. Tony Harrison actor like audience relationship
