Anne Stevenson Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“Blake has always been a favorite, the lyrics, not so much the prophetic books, but I suppose Yeats influenced me more as a young poet, and the American, Robert Frost.”

“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.”

“I am now seventy, rather glad, really, that I won't live to see the horrors to come in the 21st century.”

“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.”

“I don't like poetry that just slaps violent words on a canvas, as it were.”

“I think a poet, like a painter, should be a craftsperson.”

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

“When everything is for 'fun' nothing is for the good.”

“I did know Ted Hughes and I partly wrote the book to explain to myself and others the complexities of a marriage that was for six years wonderfully productive of poetry and then ended in tragedy.”

“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.”