But most commonly, it's one poem that I work on with a lot of intensity.
Philip LevineRead
No one can write like Vallejo and not sound like a fraud. He's just too much himself and not you.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the uniqueness of an artist's voice and warns against imitation.
Philip Levine highlights the importance of authenticity in art by suggesting that no one can replicate the distinct style of the poet CΓ©sar Vallejo without appearing insincere. Vallejoβs work embodies his true self, making it impossible for another to capture that essence without losing their own identity, thus underscoring the significance of individual expression in creative endeavors.
In practice
This quote can inspire young artists in a workshop to embrace their unique styles.
But most commonly, it's one poem that I work on with a lot of intensity.
Meet some people who care about poetry the way you do. You'll have that readership. Keep going until you know you're doing work that's worthy. And then see what happens. That's my advice.
I'm afraid we live at the mercy of a power, maybe a God, without mercy. And yet we find it, as I have, from others.
It's ironic that while I was a worker in Detroit, which I left when I was twenty six, my sense was that the thing that's going to stop me from being a poet is the fact that I'm doing this crummy work.
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 reconstruct it so that that voice is the dominant voice in the poem.
I'm saying look, here they come, pay attention. Let your eyes transform what appears ordinary, commonplace, into what it is, a moment in time, an observed fragment of eternity.
I'm very much of the opinion that theatre is a collective art form, not just one person's vision.
I'm a failed poet. Reading poetry helps me to see the world differently, and I try to infuse my prose with figurative language, which goes against the trend in fiction.
I am always trying to 'preserve' things by getting other people to read what I have written, and feel what I felt.
A photograph has edges the world does not.
I never plot out my novels in terms of the tone of the book. Hopefully, once a story is begun it reveals itself
If you go all the way back, I've always written science-fiction, I've always written fantasy, I've always written horror stories and monster stories, right from the beginning of my career. I've always moved back and forth between the genres. I don't really recognise that there's a significant difference between them in some senses.
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