Each memorable verse of a true poet has two or three times the written content.
-Alfred De Musset
"Le Poète déchu"
Quotations
Poet
A poet must leave traces of his passage, not proof.
-René Char
Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.
-T. S. Eliot
"Dante"
At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.
-Plato
The poet never asks for admiration; he wants to be believed.
-Jean Cocteau
Poets are damned… but see with the eyes of angels.
-Allen Ginsberg
A poet's mission is to make words do more work than they normally do, to make them work on more than one level.
-Jay Z
"Decoded"
To have great poets there must be great audiences too.
-Walt Whitman
The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
-Jean Cocteau
All good poems are victories over something.
-Stephen Dunn
