A sentence is like a tune. A memorable sentence gives its emotion a melodic shape. You want to hear it again, say it—in a way, to hum it to yourself.…

- Robert Pinsky

Deciding to remember, and what to remember, is how we decide who we are.

- Robert Pinsky

Autobiography is a genre notorious for falsehood.

- Robert Pinsky

To talk about the reality of life here and the work that you do here at the university.

- Robert Pinsky

An underestimated element in poetry, that reading aloud makes clear, is the pause. I mean especially the force of a pause or a couple of pauses close…

- Robert Pinsky

In jazz, as in poetry, there is always that play between what’s regular and what’s wild. That has always appealed to me.

- Robert Pinsky

The heart grows brutal feeding on fantasies.

- Robert Pinsky

Whatever makes a child want to glue macaroni on a paper plate and paint the assemblage and see it on the refrigerator - that has always been strong i…

- Robert Pinsky

Poetry is the most bodily of the arts.

- Robert Pinsky