I've always used poetry to explain myself to myself. These things just sat in my psyche and then came out. Jonathan Galassi More Quotes by Jonathan Galassi More Quotes From Jonathan Galassi Be patient, work hard and consistently, have faith in your writing, and don't be afraid to listen to constructive criticism. Jonathan Galassi work-hardfaithworkwriting If you've worked in a company for a long time, there's a mythology that you know by heart, you don't need to look it up to evoke. It's there in your blood, as it were. Jonathan Galassi youhearttimelong The only thing you can really say in a poem is what you really, really deeply believe. Jonathan Galassi sayonlyyoubelieve There are courses you can take to learn the mechanics of the business, like the Radcliffe course, but I don't think they teach you how to edit. Jonathan Galassi thinkyouteachbusiness I've always loved the poetry in 'Pale Fire.' I think it's wonderful. Jonathan Galassi lovedthinkpoetryfire Poetry is really about your mental state or intellectual, and where you are, and you're trying to evoke that, explain it to yourself, whatever, you're trying to dig into it, analyse yourself. Jonathan Galassi youryourselfyoupoetry My poems are always about my life in one way or another. Jonathan Galassi my-lifealwayslifeway I think poetry was always where I went to deal with my deepest feelings. Jonathan Galassi thinkalwayspoetryfeelings After college, I went to England and studied for a couple years. Jonathan Galassi afterenglandcollegeyears I wanted to be involved with literature. I certainly wasn't going to be able to write for a living, and I didn't have enough confidence in my talent to think that I should be just doing that. Publishing seemed like fun to me - to be involved with writers. And it did turn out to be. Jonathan Galassi thinkmeconfidencetalent Claiming your life for yourself feels like a huge deal until you do it. Jonathan Galassi youryourselfyoulife What the beautiful-writing writers are most attached to is almost always superfluous. Jonathan Galassi attachedalmostmostalways Writing is inherently scary. Jonathan Galassi inherentlyscarywriting Poems are endlessly renewable resources. Whatever you bring to them, at whatever stage of life, gets mirrored back, refracted, reread in new ways. Jonathan Galassi newbackyoulife Giving oneself permission to write to begin with is the first enormous challenge. But you discover that this permission involves a requirement: To write about things that are difficult because they are, in fact, your subject. Jonathan Galassi challengeyouryougiving I think that the continuity of what I do as an editor with what I did when I started out 40 years ago is very direct. The delivery system is changing and will continue to, but the actual interaction between publisher and author is exactly the same. Jonathan Galassi willthinkdeliveryyears I love poetry; it's my primary literary interest, and I suppose the kind of reading you do when you are reading poems - close reading - can carry over into how you read other things. Jonathan Galassi youpoetryreadinglove Elizabeth Bishop in particular had a big impact on me personally as well as artistically. Her insistence on clarity is something I rate very highly. Jonathan Galassi somethingbigmeimpact Poetry is not mainstream, but then neither is serious fiction, really. But I don't think there's a lot to worry about in this particular 'problem'. Why does art have to be mainstream to be significant? Jonathan Galassi thinkseriouspoetryart That's one thing about fiction: you can make the world be the way you think it should be. Jonathan Galassi thinkyouwayworld
