Carol Ann Duffy Quotes

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For me, poetry is the music of being human. And also a time machine by which we can travel to who we are and to who we will become.

Carol Ann Duffy

Machines, Who We Are, Being Human

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I like to use simple words, but in a complicated way.

Carol Ann Duffy

Simple, Use, Way

"Winning lines" by Peter Forbes, www.theguardian.com. August 30, 2002.

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Poetry, above all is a series of intense moments its power is not in narrative. I'm not dealing with facts, I'm dealing
with emotion.

Carol Ann Duffy

Intense Moments, Narrative, Facts

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You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what's in your heart.

Carol Ann Duffy

Memories, Heart, People

"Carol Ann Duffy: 'Poetry is in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus .. or just what's in your heart'". www.mirror.co.uk. May 2, 2009.

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It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal

Carol Ann Duffy

Winning, Males, Fiction

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Like the sand and the oyster, it's a creative irritant. In each poem, I'm trying to reveal a truth, so it can't have a fictional beginning.

Carol Ann Duffy

Oysters, Creative, Trying

"Christmas Carol" by Hephzibah Anderson, www.theguardian.com. December 3, 2005.

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What will you do now with the gift of your left life?

Carol Ann Duffy

Left

Carol Ann Duffy (2012). “The Bees”, p.104, Pan Macmillan

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Poetry and prayer are very similar.

Carol Ann Duffy

Prayer

"Christmas Carol" by Hephzibah Anderson, www.theguardian.com. December 3, 2005.

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The stars are filming us for no one.

Carol Ann Duffy

Stars

Carol Ann Duffy (2010). “Love Poems”, p.13, Pan Macmillan

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The poem is a form of texting... it's the original text. It's a perfecting of a feeling in language - it's a way of saying more with less, just as texting is.

Carol Ann Duffy

Technology, Feelings, Texting

"Carol Ann Duffy: 'Poems are a form of texting'". Interview with Joanna Moorhead, www.theguardian.com. September 5, 2011.

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Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.

Carol Ann Duffy

Opposites, Wonder, Said

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When you have a child, your previous life seems like someone else's. It's like living in a house and suddenly finding a room you didn't know was there, full of treasure and light.

Carol Ann Duffy

Children, Light, House

"Christmas Carol". Interview with Hephzibah Anderson, www.theguardian.com. December 04, 2005.

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I write quite a lot of sonnets, and I think of them almost as prayers: short and memorable, something you can recite.

Carol Ann Duffy

Prayer, Memorable, Writing

"Christmas Carol" by Hephzibah Anderson, www.theguardian.com. December 3, 2005.

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I think all poets must feel this: that there is constantly something new to be discovered in the language. It's like a thrilling encounter, and you can find things.

Carol Ann Duffy

Thinking, Discovery, Encounters

"I still haven't written the best I can" by Rachel Cooke, www.theguardian.com. May 2, 2009.

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Poets deal in writing about feelings and trying to find the language and images for intense feelings.

Carol Ann Duffy

Writing, Feelings, Trying

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I see the shape of the poem before I start writing, and the writing is just the process of arriving at the shape.

Carol Ann Duffy

Writing, Arriving, Shapes

"I still haven't written the best I can" by Rachel Cooke, www.theguardian.com. May 2, 2009.

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The moment of inspiration can come from memory, or language, or the imagination, or experience - anything that makes an impression forcibly enough for language to form.

Carol Ann Duffy

Memories, Inspiration, Imagination

"I still haven't written the best I can" by Rachel Cooke, www.theguardian.com. May 2, 2009.

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You have me like a drawing, erased, coloured in, untitled, signed by your tongue.

Carol Ann Duffy

Drawing, Tongue

Carol Ann Duffy (2013). “Mean Time”, p.33, Pan Macmillan

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I grew up in a bookless house - my parents didn't read poetry, so if I hadn't had the chance to experience it at school I'd never have experienced it. But I loved English, and I was very lucky in that I had inspirational English teachers, Miss Scriven and Mr. Walker, and they liked us to learn poems by heart, which I found I loved doing.

Carol Ann Duffy

Inspirational, Teacher, Heart

"Carol Ann Duffy: 'Poems are a form of texting" by Joanna Moorhead, www.theguardian.com. September 5, 2011.

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Poets sing our human music for us.

Carol Ann Duffy

Poet, Humans

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Better off dead than giving in; not taking what you want.

Carol Ann Duffy

Giving, Better Off Dead, Want

Carol Ann Duffy (2016). “Selling Manhattan”, p.33, Pan Macmillan

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It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

Carol Ann Duffy

Moon, Paper, Brown

Carol Ann Duffy (2013). “Mean Time”, p.30, Pan Macmillan

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As anyone who has the slightest knowledge of my work knows, I have little in common with Larkin, who was tall, taciturn and thin-on-top, and unlike him I laugh, nay, sneer, in the face of death. I will concede one point: we are both lesbian poets.

Carol Ann Duffy

Laughing, Littles, Faces

"Winning Lines". Interview with Peter Forbes, www.theguardian.com. August 31, 2002.

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She stood upon a continent of ice, which sparkled between sea and sky, endless and dazzling, as though the world kept all its treasure there; a scale which balanced poetry and prayer.

Carol Ann Duffy

Prayer, Sea, Sky

Carol Ann Duffy (2009). “Mrs. Scrooge: A Christmas Poem”, p.31, Simon and Schuster

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My prose is turgid, it just hasn't got any energy

Carol Ann Duffy

Energy, Prose

"Christmas Carol". Interview with Hephzibah Anderson, www.theguardian.com. December 3, 2005.

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Carol Ann Duffy

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Born: December 23, 1955
Occupation: Poet
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