Quotes About Interpretation

From the throes of inspiration and the eddies of thought the poet may at last be able to arrive at, and convey the right admixture of words and meaning.

I wouldn't be very happy if a poet read what I had written and said, 'What a peculiar thing to say about this work of mine.'

I believe the poet shouldn't be in the poem at all except as a lens or as ears.

I like bringing my poet brain and sensibility to lyrics I write.

My working habit is to separate my aims as a painting from my aims as a poet. They come from very different places and ultimately lead me to very different places... I'll leave what I mean by 'places' ambiguous.

There are no poetic ideas; only poetic utterances.

My father basically had two ways of judging anything. Either something was poetic or it wasn't.

The object of poetic activity is essentially language: whatever his beliefs and convictions, the poet is more concerned with words than with what these words designate.

I write autobiographically, although I apply liberal amounts of poetic license.

A lot of the Koran does not speak very eloquently to a Westerner. Much of it is either legalistic or opaquely poetic.

I do think my lyrics have gotten... not necessarily more poetic, but more open to interpretation; they're less literal.

I was taught that poems don't end, they just kind of stop. There's never an ending to a poem; it's a continuation for later. When I write, I write for me, and I write in poetic form.

I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry.

A poem can have an impact, but you can't expect an audience to understand all the nuances.

Sometimes poetry is inspired by the conversation entered into by reading other poems.

Dancing is the poetry of the foot.

Poetry is not a matter of feelings, it is a matter of language. It is language which creates feelings.

Making poetry with a camera - that's the essence of what I do.

It's not easy to define poetry.

The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it.

My father, composer Sardar Malik, used to say that a good musician should always try to imbibe good poetry. One reason why today's songs don't have a shelf life is because of inane lyrics.

I believe that poetry should communicate.

A book is sent out into the world, and there is no way of fully anticipating the responses it will elicit. Consider the responses called forth by the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare - let alone contemporary poetry or a modern novel.

They need to learn poetry. They don't need to learn about poetry. They don't need to be told how to interpret poetry. They don't need to be told how to understand poetry. They need to learn it.