Corruption is subtle, just like the Bible said. Many young poets have come to me and asked, How am I gonna make it? They feel, and often with considerable justice, that they are being overlooked while others with less talent are out there making careers for themselves. I always give the same advice. I say, Do it the hard way, and you’ll always feel good about yourself. You write because you have to, and you get this unbelievable satisfaction from doing it well. Try to live on that as long as you’re able.
How weightless/ words are when nothing will do. - Philip Levine
How weightless/ words are when nothing will do.
- Philip Levine
I write what's given me to write. - Philip Levine
I write what's given me to write.
You have begun to separate the dark from the dark. - Philip Levine
You have begun to separate the dark from the dark.
Corruption is subtle, just like the Bible said. Many young poets have come to me and asked, How am I gonna make it? They feel, and often with conside… - Philip Levine
Corruption is subtle, just like the Bible said. Many young poets have come to me and asked, How am I gonna make it? They feel, and often with conside…
If that voice that you created that is most alive in the poem isn't carried throughout the whole poem, then I destroy where it's not there, and I rec… - Philip Levine
If that voice that you created that is most alive in the poem isn't carried throughout the whole poem, then I destroy where it's not there, and I rec…
Some things you know all your life. They are so simple and true they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme...they must be naked and alone, t… - Philip Levine
Some things you know all your life. They are so simple and true they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme...they must be naked and alone, t…
The irony is, going to work every day became the subject of probably my best poetry. - Philip Levine
The irony is, going to work every day became the subject of probably my best poetry.
My earliest poems were a way of talking to somebody. I suppose to myself. - Philip Levine
My earliest poems were a way of talking to somebody. I suppose to myself.
I still believe in this country, that it can fulfill the destiny Blake and Whitman envisioned. I still believe in American poetry. - Philip Levine
I still believe in this country, that it can fulfill the destiny Blake and Whitman envisioned. I still believe in American poetry.
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