Billy Collins Quotes About Difficulty

Quotes about: Difficulty

• Another trouble with poetry - and I'm gonna stop the list at two - is the presence of presumptuousness in poetry, the sense you get in a poem that the poet takes for granted an interest on the reader's part in the poet's autobiographical life, in the poet's memories, problems, difficulties and even minor perceptions.

  Billy Collins

  Memories, Two, Perception

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I try to presume that no one is interested in me. And I think experience bears that out. No one's interested in the experiences of a stranger - let's put it that way. And then you have difficulty combined with presumptuousness, which is the most dire trouble with poetry.

  Billy Collins

  Thinking, Trying, Way

  "A Brisk Walk". Interview with Joel Whitney, www.guernicamag.com. June 14, 2006.

• Usually the poems are written in one sitting. There's always a groping towards some satisfying ending. But I'd say the hardest part is not writing. Once the writing starts, it's too pleasurable to think of it as a difficulty.

  Billy Collins

  Writing, Thinking, Sitting

  "A Brisk Walk". Interview with Joel Whitney, www.guernicamag.com. June 14, 2006.

• A trouble with poetry is the presence of presumptuousness in poetry, the sense you get in a poem that the poet takes for granted an interest on the reader's part in the poet's autobiographical life, in the poet's memories, problems, difficulties and even minor perceptions. I try to presume that no one is interested in me. And I think experience bears that out. No one's interested in the experiences of a stranger - let's put it that way. And then you have difficulty combined with presumptuousness, which is the most dire trouble with poetry.

  Billy Collins

  Memories, Thinking, Perception

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• There are interesting forms of difficulty, and there are unprofitable forms of difficulty. I mean, I enjoy some difficult poetry, but some of it is impenetrable and I actually wouldn't want to penetrate it if I could, perhaps.

  Billy Collins

  Mean, Interesting, Want

• Some difficulty is warranted and other difficulty I think is gratuitous. And I think I can tell the difference. There are certainly very difficult poets that I really enjoy reading.

  Billy Collins

  Reading, Thinking, Differences

  "A Brisk Walk". Interview with Joel Whitney, www.guernicamag.com. June 14, 2006.

• More often than not in poetry I find difficulty to be gratuitous and show-offy and camouflaging, experimental to a kind of insane degree - a difficulty which really ignores the possibility of having a sensible reader.

  Billy Collins

  Insane, Degrees, Kind

  "A Brisk Walk". Interview with Joel Whitney, www.guernicamag.com. June 14, 2006.

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