Paul Muldoon Quotes

• Form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini.

  Paul Muldoon

  Way, Houdini, Form

  The Irish Times, April 19, 2003.

  46 Copy quote

• The point of poetry is to be acutely discomforting, to prod and provoke, to poke us in the eye, to punch us in the nose, to knock us off our feet, to take our breath away.

  Paul Muldoon

  Eye, Feet, Noses

  Princeton University Library Chronicle, Spring 1998.

  15 Copy quote

• Confusion is what we're living with - not being able to make sense of what's happening to us from day to day. Whereas making sense is what we're aiming for - making sense.

  Paul Muldoon

  Confusion, Able, Make Sense

  15 Copy quote

• If the poem has no obvious destination, there's a chance that we'll be all setting off on an interesting ride.

  Paul Muldoon

  Interesting, Chance, Destination

  Harper’s Magazine, September 1999.

  7 Copy quote

• I certainly am interested in accessibility, clarity, and immediacy.

  Paul Muldoon

  Clarity, Immediacy, Accessibility

  85 Copy quote

• Words want to find chimes with each other, things want to connect.

  Paul Muldoon

  Want, Chimes

  Interview with John Redmond, www.poetrymagazines.org.uk. November 2, 1995.

  89 Copy quote

• One will never again look at a birch tree, after the Robert Frost poem, in exactly the same way.

  Paul Muldoon

  Poetry, Tree, Way

  Interview with John Redmond, www.poetrymagazines.org.uk. November 2, 1995.

  69 Copy quote

• On the other hand, at some level the mass of unresolved issues in Northern Ireland does influence the fact that there are so many good writers in the place.

  Paul Muldoon

  Issues, Hands, Facts

  Interview with John Redmond, www.poetrymagazines.org.uk. November 2, 1995.

  7 Copy quote

• It's not as if I'm trying to write crossword puzzles to which one might find an answer at the back of the book or anything like that.

  Paul Muldoon

  Book, Writing, Trying

  "Paul Muldoon: Pulitzer Prize for Poetry". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. May 26, 2003.

  4 Copy quote

• For whatever reason, people, including very well-educated people or people otherwise interested in reading, do not read poetry

  Paul Muldoon

  Reading, People, Reason

  4 Copy quote

• What I try to do is to go into a poem - and one writes them, of course, poem by poem - to go into each poem, first of all without having any sense whatsoever of where it's going to end up

  Paul Muldoon

  Writing, Trying, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• I suppose for whatever reason I actively welcome being put down, something which perhaps goes back to my upbringing - that accusation of not being worthy which could be laid at one's door.

  Paul Muldoon

  Doors, Welcome, Reason

  Interview to Thumbscrew Magazine, www.poetrymagazines.org.uk. Spring, 1996.

  8 Copy quote

• I'm sure 50 percent of television ads use rhyme

  Paul Muldoon

  Use, Television, Rhyming

  7 Copy quote

• Obviously one of the things that poets from Northern Ireland and beyond - had to try to make sense of was what was happening on a day-to-day political level.

  Paul Muldoon

  Political, Trying, Levels

  Interview with John Redmond, www.poetrymagazines.org.uk. November 2, 1995.

  6 Copy quote

• I was born in Northern Ireland in 1951. I lived most of my life there until 1986 or 1987

  Paul Muldoon

  Born, Northern Ireland, Ireland

  4 Copy quote

• Of course, you can't legislate for how people are going to read.

  Paul Muldoon

  People, Courses

  Interview with John Redmond, www.poetrymagazines.org.uk. November 2, 1995.

  4 Copy quote

• The ground swell is what’s going to sink you as well as being what buoys you up. These are clichés also, of course, and I’m sometimes interested in how much one can get away with.

  Paul Muldoon

  Buoys, Sometimes, Cliche

  Interview with Paul Muldoon, www.poetrymagazines.org.uk. 1996.

  84 Copy quote

• That's one of the great things about poetry; one realises that one does one's little turn - that you're just part of the great crop, as it were.

  Paul Muldoon

  Doe, Littles, Crops

  Interview with John Redmond, www.poetrymagazines.org.uk. November 2, 1995.

  9 Copy quote

• Your average pop song or film is a very sophisticated item, with very sophisticated ways of listening and viewing that we have not really consciously developed over the years - because we were having such a good time

  Paul Muldoon

  Song, Average, Years

  4 Copy quote

• I believe that these devices like repetition and rhyme are not artificial, that they're not imposed, somehow, on the language.

  Paul Muldoon

  Believe, Rhyming, Language

  Interview with John Redmond, www.poetrymagazines.org.uk. November 2, 1995.

  9 Copy quote

• It seems to me the structure of the Quartets is too imposed.

  Paul Muldoon

  Structure, Quartets, Seems

  Interview with John Redmond, www.poetrymagazines.org.uk. November 2, 1995.

  4 Copy quote

• Living at that pitch, on that edge, is something which many poets engage in to some extent.

  Paul Muldoon

  Engagement, Poet, Edges

  Interview with John Redmond, www.poetrymagazines.org.uk. November 2, 1995.

  4 Copy quote

• I do a lot of readings.

  Paul Muldoon

  Reading

  4 Copy quote

• There's very little of the intentional about the business of writing poetry, as least as far as I can see.

  Paul Muldoon

  Writing, Littles, Writing Poetry

  4 Copy quote

• We simply have not kept in touch with poetry

  Paul Muldoon

  4 Copy quote

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