I never doubted my talent. If talent was the circus, then I was its ringmaster and audience, applauding its every move. Philip Schultz More Quotes by Philip Schultz More Quotes From Philip Schultz To pay for my father's funeral I borrowed money from people he already owed money to. One called him a nobody. No, I said, he was a failure. You can't remember a nobody's name, that's why they're called nobodies. Failures are unforgettable. Philip Schultz names father people Emotional truth is the reward of digging deeply enough to find the truth about how one really feels, but in order to convey this truth with any force, or artistry, one needs to 'create' a form of expression, and this form determines its own "genuine information". Philip Schultz emotional expression order Every artist has his or her struggle to work out in their work. The more powerful the struggle, the more persuasive the art. Philip Schultz powerful struggle art My poems often start with an idea, some kind of inspiration. I don't expect anything. Every now and then something like "The One Truth" comes out. Philip Schultz kind inspiration ideas There are real facts in my poems, but facts mixed up in the perverse stubborn stew of imagination, add a pinch or two of revenge and retribution, a dash of amplification and reparation. Philip Schultz real revenge two My first sense of myself was as an artist, a painter. I would see a Van Gogh painting and just love it, the more emotional and passionate the more it attracted me. Philip Schultz passionate emotional artist I'm the kind of father I wanted my father to be. That may be the sweetest revenge. Philip Schultz revenge may father Happiness is a powerful thing. It freed me to do what I always wanted to do. Philip Schultz powerful wanted I wrote poetry in a secretive way, I think, a secret from myself, I mean. I wrote it because it gave me great pleasure to do so and because it relieved the ever-building pressure of the demanding world around me. It's always served me as a way of appraising, and controlling overwhelming experiences. But this need, and desire, was always in conflict with my need to "survive." Philip Schultz secret mean thinking My father's death when I was eighteen and his struggles as a Jewish immigrant provided me with the raw material, but for a long time I went from painting to fiction and then finally to poetry before I could find the right way of telling this story. Philip Schultz struggle long father Art is a crime scene in a sense, a crucible, of the mind and heart and our dreams. Philip Schultz crucible dream art When a child knows that he or she is dyslexic, that it's the way their brain is programmed, and it's not their fault, that makes all the difference in the world. Philip Schultz child brain way world Art's power of persuasion resides in the small personal details of one's own story, and if it weren't for my struggle with dyslexia, I doubt I'd ever have become a writer or known how to teach others to write. Philip Schultz story power struggle art There is a gap in my work from '84 to 2002, 18 years where I stopped writing. I was working at fiction and other things and starting a school and getting married and starting a family, but I wasn't writing poetry for the better part of 15 years. Philip Schultz family poetry work school I do think that there is a profound reservoir of creativity and imagination in everyone I've ever met, and sometimes if someone is persistent and perversely obstinate enough to persevere, then they want to be helped. There is a way to help them. Philip Schultz creativity imagination sometimes way I don't think I've worked with anyone where I haven't seen some progress. Now sometimes you can't take someone where they want to go, not all the way, and sometimes you stop, and they do it or don't do it on their own thereafter. Philip Schultz think you progress sometimes I'm a painfully slow reader. And to this day, I mean, I love reading, and I'm very careful - very selective about what I read because I don't read very fast and, therefore, not a great deal. Philip Schultz day great reading love What I read, I read thoroughly and retain almost all of it. Philip Schultz retain thoroughly almost read I have to often read the same sentence over and over before I understand it. And I have to convince myself that what I'm reading is so enjoyable and so exciting and so good for me that it's worth the effort. Philip Schultz good myself me effort I come from a family of Russian immigrant Jews who were all big storytellers, who would get together, and one would try to top the others' stories, and stories would get bigger and bigger. And the lying aspect, the exaggeration, would get large. Philip Schultz try get-together family together
