Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.
-Jean Cocteau
Quotations
Poet
I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests.
-Pablo Neruda
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"
The worst fate of a poet is to be admired without being understood.
-Jean Cocteau
"Le Rappel á l'ordre"
All good poems are victories over something.
-Stephen Dunn
When a poet speaks to his own people, the voices of all other poets of other languages who have influenced him are speaking also.
-T. S. Eliot
Poets create gods, philosophers destroy them.
-Marty Rubin
The poet never asks for admiration; he wants to be believed.
-Jean Cocteau
Poets are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
The poet's job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep, so important, and yet so difficult to name, to tell the truth in such a beautiful way, that people cannot live without it.
-Jane Kenyon
