Quotes from Richard Hugo

Never has your Buick / found this forward a gear.

Believe you and I sing tiny and wise and could if we had to eat stone and go on.

You are someone and you have a right to your life.

There are those usual people who try desperately to appear unusual and there are unusual people who try to appear usual.

In truth, the writer's problems are usually psychological, like everyone else's.

Never write a poem about anything that ought to have a poem written about it, a wise man once told me.

Lovers inside and horses ignoring the lovers. And the creek nearby. The willows. That was the scene. I forget the sky. The sky, let's say, was green and dotted with silly clouds that looked like dimes. Then

If you are really strange you are always in enemy territory, and your constant concern is survival.

Don't start arguments. They are futile and take us away from our purpose. As Yeats noted, your important arguments are with yourself. If you don't agree with me, don't listen. Think about something else.

We never quite understand and we can't quite explain.

Troppo miseria

The car that brought you here still runs.

Self-acceptance through writing is no different than self-acceptance through time.

If that's too mythical a tone consider those who conform and know something's wrong and need a zany few who won't obey.

A creative writing class may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters.

You are someone and you have a right to your life.

A good creative-writing teacher can save a good writer a lot of time.

You owe reality nothing and the truth about your feelings everything.

Don't write love poems when you're in love. Write them when you're not in love.