I consider the sound of the sea to be part of my body. Derek Walcott More Quotes by Derek Walcott More Quotes From Derek Walcott I was writing from a very, very early age. My father used to write. He died early, and my mother was a schoolteacher, so my academic background from childhood is a strong one, a good one. Derek Walcott goodchildhoodagemother I'm read in the Caribbean with justice, with fairness. What I expect it to do is to encourage articulacy in the young. Derek Walcott expectfairnessyoungjustice The greatest writers have been, at heart, parochial, provincial in their rootedness. Derek Walcott provincialgreatestbeenheart For so long, the world has viewed West Indian culture as semiliterate and backward, which it is not. In my work, I have tried to give that world an exposure so the world can better understand it. Derek Walcott worklongcultureworld A fisherman, say, working on a beach doing his job, may be photographed by a tourist because it's photogenic to see him working, and the Caribbean is extremely photogenic, so poverty is photogenic, and a lot of people are photographed in their poverty, and sometimes it's kind of exploited. Derek Walcott jobsometimesbeachpeople My dedication to trying to be a poet started very, very young, and I was very well encouraged by good teachers and by older friends and so on, so I think it is a benediction, and I also think it is a calling, a duty. Derek Walcott goodthinkdedicationfriends How does a poet teach himself or herself? I think chiefly by imitation, chiefly by practising it as a deliberate technical exercise often. Translation, imitation, those were my methods anyway. Derek Walcott howthinkteachexercise I am not defined as a black writer in the Caribbean, but as soon as I go to America or the U.K., my place becomes black theatre. It's a little ridiculous. Derek Walcott i-amplaceblacktheatre There are some things people avoid saying in interviews because they sound pompous or sentimental or too mystical. Derek Walcott sayingthingssoundpeople Individual writers have different postures, different stances, even different physical attitudes as they stand or sit over their blank paper, and in a sense, without doing it, they are crossing themselves; I mean, it's like the habit of Catholics going into water: you cross yourself before you go in. Derek Walcott standyourselfyouwater That's another pompous expression that is out of fashion, to say that poetry is a gift. It sounds pompous because you say, 'Who gave you the gift, and what is this gift?' And the gift is where I am; the gift is what I have come out of, the people around me who, I think, are beautiful people. Derek Walcott i-ammeyoubeautiful The discontent that lies in the human condition is not satisfied simply by material things. Derek Walcott conditionhumanthingssatisfied
