If what you want to do is make good art, decide whats good and try to imitate it. Robert Pinsky More Quotes by Robert Pinsky More Quotes From Robert Pinsky There is much appeal for me in Eastern religion, the little I know of it. And something thorny in me finds American adaptations of Buddhism terribly self-indulgent, silly, gooey in the way the English call "wet." Robert Pinsky buddhism self silly My devils and angels, fears and hopes, insights and stupidities, loves and loathings, are what they are. I don't edit them out so much as try to make them interesting - whether I am talking to you, or writing a poem, or joking with my kids, or speaking on television. Robert Pinsky angel writing kids Autobiography is a genre notorious for falsehood. Robert Pinsky genre notorious autobiography The last thing a young artist should do in poetry or any other field is think about whats in style, whats current, what are the trends. Think instead of what you like to read, what do you admire, what you like to listen to in music. What do you like to look at in architecture? Try to make a poem that has some of those qualities. Robert Pinsky style artist thinking Poetry is the most bodily of the arts. Robert Pinsky poetry-is art The poetry I love is written with someone's voice and I believe its proper culmination is to be read with someone's voice. And the human voice in that sense is not electronically reproduced or amplified. Robert Pinsky voice love-is believe Even in the scorched and frozen world of the dead after the Robert Pinsky ornaments holocaust death For Aliki Barnstone, poetry seems a natural medium. The vision and cadences of these poems suggest a sensibility for which poetry is as inevitable as breathing or eating. Robert Pinsky cadence breathing vision If a poem is written well, it was written with the poet's voice and for a voice. Reading a poem silently instead of saying a poem is like the difference between staring at sheet music and actually humming or playing the music on an instrument. Robert Pinsky differences voice reading I think art is not an ornament or refinement at the fringes of human intelligence, I think it's at the center. It's at the core. Robert Pinsky human think intelligence art I am a frustrated saxophone player. If I could, I would abandon all of my books, and I would trade it all if I could play the way people I admire play. Robert Pinsky i-am admire people way I think my first experience of art, or the joy in making art, was playing the horn at some high-school dance or bar mitzvah or wedding, looking at a roomful of people moving their bodies around in time to what I was doing. There was a piano player, a bass player, a drummer, and my breath making the melody. Robert Pinsky experience dance time art For an American, there's no automatic place where people love the art of poetry. There's not a social class that considers poetry its property the way in some countries there's a snob value to the art. Robert Pinsky poetry love people art Method involves a slavish addiction to laws, and we can only aspire to anarchy. Robert Pinsky laws only anarchy addiction To me, writing is a matter of voice. I think like that. The expression I sometimes use to myself is 'actual song.' That what I do is somewhere on the line between speaking to you as I am now and actual song. And the things I love when I say one of those poems to myself - it's a little bit like singing, it's a little bit like speaking. Robert Pinsky i-am myself me love I'm far from immune to the American, perhaps historically male, prejudice toward practical and physical competence; I hope I've also considered that prejudice enough to have some distance from it. Robert Pinsky distance prejudice enough hope Poetry is a vocal art for me - but not necessarily a performative one. It might be reading to oneself or recalling some lines by memory. Robert Pinsky memory me poetry art 'Write' is almost the wrong verb for what I do. I think 'compose' is more accurate because you're trying to make the sounds in your mind and in your voice. So I compose while I'm driving or in the shower. Robert Pinsky think you voice mind For a lot of people, well-meaning teaching has made poetry seem arcane, difficult, a kind of brown-knotting medicine that might be good for you but doesn't taste so good. So I tried to make a collection of poetry that would be fun. And that would bring out poetry as an art, rather than the challenge to say smart things. Robert Pinsky good you people art All questions of process require an answer that begins with a very important sentence, and the sentence is: 'Everybody is different.' Whatever way of working you name - methodical, haphazard, gets up early in the morning, sleeps all day, works at night, revises immensely, never revises at all - someone has made great work with that way. Robert Pinsky day you work morning
