Quote

Poets should ignore most criticism and get on with making poetry.

Anne Stevenson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Anne Stevenson
Age: 87 †
Born: 1933
Born: January 3
Died: 2020
Died: September 14
Literary Critic
Poet
Writer
Anne Katharine Stevenson
Making
Poets
Ignore
Criticism
Poet
Poetry

More quotes by Anne Stevenson

Image
Sylvia Plath was just a month and a half older than I, and when she committed suicide I was only 30 - and very shocked and sorry. I never knew her personally.
Anne Stevenson
Image
When everything is for 'fun' nothing is for the good.
Anne Stevenson
Image
I write, or used to write, to explain to myself situations I couldn't otherwise solve or understand. Meditation comes very naturally to me.
Anne Stevenson
Image
Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly.
Anne Stevenson
Image
I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas.
Anne Stevenson
Image
I don't like poetry that just slaps violent words on a canvas, as it were.
Anne Stevenson
Image
I remain loyal to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert in music and to Shakespeare and Jane Austen in literature.
Anne Stevenson
Image
I dislike literary jargon and never use it. Criticism has only one function and that is to help readers read and understand literature. It is not a science, it is an aid to art.
Anne Stevenson
Image
There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic.
Anne Stevenson
Image
A hobbyhorse can be a tiring ride for nonenthusiasts.
Anne Stevenson
Image
Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.
Anne Stevenson
Image
I have always made my own rules, in poetry as in life - though I have tried of late to cooperate more with my family. I do, however, believe that without order or pattern poetry is useless.
Anne Stevenson
Image
Peter Lucas and I live in Durham but spend a great of time in North Wales, where we have a cottage in the mountains, and in Vermont, USA, with my sister - who is a children's writer married to a poet.
Anne Stevenson
Image
My earlier poems were sadder than my poems are today, perhaps because I wrote them in confusion or when I was unhappy. But I am not a melancholy person, quite the contrary, no one enjoys laughing more than I do.
Anne Stevenson
Image
I'm not really quiet or shy. Ask any of my friends! But I always ground my poetry in life itself. Poetry is an art of language, though, so I am always aware of every word's meaning, or multiple meanings.
Anne Stevenson
Image
You've got criminal courts and child welfare officials refusing to do their jobs and protect children so they can shift the cases over to family court where predatory professionals can turn a dirty buck off the atrocities committed against children.
Anne Stevenson
Image
Mind led body to the edge of the precipice. They stared in desire at the naked abyss. If you love me, said mind, take that step into silence. If you love me, said body, turn and exist.
Anne Stevenson
Image
I am now seventy, rather glad, really, that I won't live to see the horrors to come in the 21st century.
Anne Stevenson
Image
democracy is dying. We are ruled by faceless bureaucrats and lecherous puritans. ... You think about it. 'All right for me but not for you' is their philosophy.
Anne Stevenson
Image
There comes a time when you have to trust your own judgment, when you must close your eyes and let your instinct rule you.
Anne Stevenson