“The Obscurity of the Poet”, p. 24
Poetry and the Age (1953)
Context: People always ask: For whom does the poet write? He needs only to answer, For whom do you do good? Are you kind to your daughter because in the end someone will pay you for being?... The poet writes his poem for its own sake, for the sake of that order of things in which the poem takes the place that has awaited it.
“Poets know their own poems in a way and to a depth that is unique.. even if they mumble a bit.. their delivery will still have important things to tell us.”
'TLS' November 25 2005
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Andrew Motion 4
poet, novelist and biographer from England 1952Related quotes
Quote from a 1962 essay by Andre; as quoted in ' Objects Are What We Aren't' https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/02/26/objects-are-what-we-arent/, by Andy Battaglia; The Parish Review, February 26, 2015

"Quotes", The Educated Imagination (1963), Talk 3: Giants in Time

“I’m sorry, am I mumbling? Tell me when I’m mumbling. Damn … I always mumble.”
Rolling Stone Magazine interview, November 1970 https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jimi-hendrix-i-dont-want-to-be-a-clown-anymore-81451/

Source: The Courage to Create (1975), Ch. 4 : Creativity and the Encounter, p. 79

Why I Am Not a Painter (l. 24-28) (1976).

Dedication 'You and I' Macmillan, New York October 1914
Other Quotes

Source: Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer (1999), p. 110