Self-knowledge is a dangerous thing, tending to make man shallow or insane.

- Karl Shapiro

To make the child in your own image is a capital crime, for your image is not worth repeating. The child knows this and you know it. Consequently you…

- Karl Shapiro

Poetry is innocent, not wise. It does not learn from experience, because each poetic experience is unique.

- Karl Shapiro

Already old, the question Who shall die? Becomes unspoken Who is innocent?

- Karl Shapiro

Poets of course are even more unpredictable than other writers, overwhelmed as they are by the moment they inhabit and finding it difficult to connec…

- Karl Shapiro

Lawyers love paper. They eat, sleep and dream paper. They turn paper into gold, and their files are colorful and their language neoclassical and call…

- Karl Shapiro

Poetry is not a way of saying things; it's a way of seeing things.

- Karl Shapiro

The good poet sticks to his real loves, to see within the realm of possibility. He never tries to hold hands with God or the human race.

- Karl Shapiro

Keelhaul the poets in the vestry chairs.

- Karl Shapiro