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In general, I find that poets spend a lot of time thinking about themselves, and not a lot of time thinking about other poets, or other poetry. Unless they think about how it affects them, or how it could impact them.

Victoria Chang

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Victoria Chang
Age: 54
Born: 1970
Born: January 1
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Investment Banker
Poet
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Spend
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More quotes by Victoria Chang

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I'm a total bottoms-up kind of person. I like things to bubble up.
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It took me awhile to not be ashamed to be a poet in the business environment, and to be a business person in the poet environment.
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Most of my writing friends are working in academia. Most of my business school friends are always talking about bringing companies public, and money, and making money, and lots and lots of money. It's just a different environment.
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I do think that given my background as a poet, and also I work in a different field, you're sort of neither here nor there.
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Most people are trying to go digital, and trying to do different things with poetry. McSweeney's is going in the opposite direction - going more classic, and retro, which is all coming back.
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My life all-around is really different than a lot of other poets. Not poets that are parents, too, but just that I can hardly find anyone who works in the industries that I've worked in.
Victoria Chang
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People who are too uptight make me nervous.
Victoria Chang
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We're all just a part of this large, spiraling, constantly fluid hierarchy and changing. At some points in your life, you feel crushed by that, depending on who you come in contact with.
Victoria Chang
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Having children can be such a gift, but it can be a crushing experience for a certain kind of mom. And I am that certain kind of mom.
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I think my way of being funny is just saying things that people think but have learned not to say, whereas, I haven't learned not to say them.
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As I published books, I realized, that's not really what I want. I don't care about the books as much anymore. I just want to write poetry.
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I love when I meet generous poets, and generous meaning nice people, who give to the poetry community, who do interviews, read other people's books, and talk about them, spread the...love, I guess. That means a lot to me.
Victoria Chang
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There's an attraction to emotional clusters or hypocrisies or awkwardness. A desire to expose something or point at something that's already poking out.
Victoria Chang
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My life in general, orderly or not, it allows me more freedom in my own writing. Sometimes I wonder, though - I have friends that sit around and just write all day. And I think it's the coolest thing.
Victoria Chang
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My gut was always that if I taught students poetry, I would give too much of myself to them and have nothing left.
Victoria Chang
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Everyone always says that having kids is messy and sloppy. It's true, but you as a parent have to try to bring some boundaries and control over that experience, or you'd have out-of-control kids.
Victoria Chang
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Whether people like your work or not, but it's also based on a lot of other things - geography, who you happen to connect with and where they sit in that ladder - and all of that felt really isolating and disheartening to me when I figured it out.
Victoria Chang
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I've always done things that were good for me, whether they were viewed as being as prestigious or whatever.
Victoria Chang
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I question my own talent and ability to make creative work every single day.
Victoria Chang
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I am always reading, always, and tons of things at once. I wouldn't say I'm a voracious reader, though. I never finish books that fast, because I'm always reading so many things at once.
Victoria Chang