“I have always loved playing around with words. I didn’t know it was called poetry. I was just an innocent kid messing around with words when an adult said ‘You’re a poet, be published or be damned’.”

— Benjamin Zephaniah

On the realization that he was a poet in “Interview with Benjamin Zephaniah” https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/writers/advice/37/a-writers-toolkit/interviews-with-authors/interview-with-benjamin-zephaniah in Writers & Artists

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I have always loved playing around with words. I didn’t know it was called poetry. I was just an innocent kid messing a…" by Benjamin Zephaniah?

Benjamin Zephaniah 9

English poet and author 1958

Related quotes

“When you’re a cartoonist, you sort of have to be, like, sensitive – or maybe open’s a better word – to what’s going on around you. When you’re an attorney, you’re just like a bulldog with your head down.”

Stephan Pastis (1968) American cartoonist

Source: Strip deals wry Pearls of wisdom https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/dec/24/strip_deals_wry_pearls_wisdom/?living (December 24, 2006)

“I think I always knew that I would have kids but I didn’t… understand… the… whooooo [brims with tears once again]. That I could love my kids the way that I love ‘em. I didn’t know there was… room for that. You love your wife, your family, but it’s different with your kids. I didn’t know I could be so selfless. I would do anything for my kids. Anything. I guess everybody goes through it.”

Brandon Flowers (1981) American indie rock singer

When asked what surprised him about being a husband and a father?
" Brandon Flowers On His Sons http://www.ibabycouture.com/blog/?p=3729", BabyCouture (accessed December 20, 2010)

“When I was growing up, everyone around me was fond of fooling around with words.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

Salon interview (1996)
Context: When I was growing up, everyone around me was fond of fooling around with words. It was certainly common in my family, but I think it is typical of Bombay, and maybe of India, that there is a sense of play in the way people use language. Most people in India are multilingual, and if you listen to the urban speech patterns there you'll find it's quite characteristic that a sentence will begin in one language, go through a second language and end in a third. It's the very playful, very natural result of juggling languages. You are always reaching for the most appropriate phrase.

“Poetry was a meeting of mind and heart, I felt at one with poetry itself. I like the concentrated language, the play with form, and the way you can muck around with words in a way that you can’t in a novel. Poetry allows you to be intense, because to some degree people expect it.”

Daljit Nagra (1966) British poet, teacher and broadcaster

On how he views poetry in “Daljit Nagra” https://www.aestheticamagazine.com/daljit-nagra/ in Aesthetica

“You can’t keep messing me around like this. It’s been going on too long. I can’t take it anymore. I get sick every time you come around. Then I get sick when you leave. You’re like a disease to me.”

Sam Shepard Fool for Love

Source: Fool for Love

“I keep saying appalling. Because, I'm running out words. They've just given in. They've just completely given in, actually trying to run around and play football.”

Steve McManaman (1972) English footballer

2010s, 2014 FIFA World Cup, Brazil v. Germany (2014)
Context: It's hard to decipher this game. It's been a very good German performance, but Ian? You cannot underestimate how bad Brazil have been today, it's like? It's like amateur hour watching them. But, their attitude has just been appalling. I know, I keep saying appalling. Because, I'm running out words. They've just given in. They've just completely given in, actually trying to run around and play football.

“Poetry is creative expression; Prose is constructive expression. … by creative I mean original. In Poetry the words are born or reborn in the act of thinking. … There is no time interval between the words and the thought when a real poet writes, both of them happen together, and both the thought and the word are Poetry.”

Herbert Read (1893–1968) English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art

English Prose Style (1928)
Literary Quotes

“No, no, I never mess around.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

“Go around — listen to how many times a day you say, "I love" instead of, "I hate." Isn't it interesting that children, as they learn the process of language, always learn the word "no" years before they learn the word "yes"?”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

Speaking Of Love (1980)
Context: Go around — listen to how many times a day you say, "I love" instead of, "I hate." Isn't it interesting that children, as they learn the process of language, always learn the word "no" years before they learn the word "yes"? Ask linguists where they hear it. Maybe if they heard more of "I love, I love, I love" they'd hear it sooner and more often.

“When I hear the words 'social order', I start looking around for somebody to pick a fight with.”

Lindsey Davis book The Accusers

The Accusers

“I have always loved playing around with words. I didn’t know it was called poetry. I was just an innocent kid messing around with words when an adult said ‘You’re a poet, be published or be damned’.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Benjamin Zephaniah 9

Related quotes

Related topics