To write a poem you must have a streak of arrogance-- not in real life I hope. In real life try to be nice. It will save you a hell of a lot of trouble and give you more time to write. Richard Hugo More Quotes by Richard Hugo More Quotes From Richard Hugo You owe reality nothing and the truth about your feelings everything. Richard Hugo feelings reality Maximum sentence length: seventeen words. Minimum:one No semicolons. Semicolons indicate relationships that only idiots need defined by punctuation. Besides, they are ugly. Make sure each sentence is at least four words longer or shorter than the one before it. Richard Hugo ugly four needs Lucky accidents seldom happen to writers who don't work. You will find that you may rewrite and rewrite a poem and it never seems quite right. Then a much better poem may come rather fast and you wonder why you bothered with all that work on the earlier poem. Actually, the hard work you do on one poem is put in on all poems. The hard work on the first poem is responsible for the sudden ease of the second. If you just sit around waiting for the easy ones, nothing will come. Get to work. Richard Hugo lucky hard-work waiting A creative writing class may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters. Richard Hugo teaching writing class Assuming you can write clear English sentences, give up all worry about communication. If you want to communicate, use the telephone. Richard Hugo giving-up communication writing Never want to say anything so strongly that you give up the option of finding something better. If you have to say it, you will. Richard Hugo giving-up say-anything want A good creative-writing teacher can save a good writer a lot of time. Richard Hugo creative writing teacher You are someone and you have a right to your life. Richard Hugo Don't write love poems when you're in love. Write them when you're not in love. Richard Hugo love-poems writing A poet is seldom hard up for advice. The worst part of it all is that sometimes the advice is coming from other poets, and they ought to know better. Richard Hugo poet advice sometimes ...an imagined town is at least as real as an actual town. If it isn't, you may be in the wrong business. Our words come from obsessions we must submit to, whatever the social cost. It can be hard. It can be worse forty years from now if you feel you could have done it and didn't. It is narcissistic, vain, egotistical, unrealistic, selfish, and hateful to assume emotional ownership of a town or a word. It is also essential. Richard Hugo selfish emotional real Don't write with a pen. Ink tends to give the impression the words shouldn't be changed. Richard Hugo ink writing giving Think small.... If you can't think small, try philosophy or social criticism. Richard Hugo criticism philosophy thinking Say nothing and just make music and you'll find plenty to say. Richard Hugo plenty Never write a poem about anything that ought to have a poem written about it. Richard Hugo ought written writing An act of imagination is an act of self-acceptance. Richard Hugo imagination acceptance self I think it's better if you write poems that look like you. Richard Hugo writing looks thinking Rub a half potato on your wart Richard Hugo rags eye fall I will garden on the double run, Richard Hugo heart running death In the world of imagination, all things belong. Richard Hugo imagination all-things world
