The Paris Review interview
Context: Poems get to the point where they are stronger than you are. They come up from some other depth and they find a place on the page. You can never find that depth again, that same kind of authority and voice. I might feel I would like to change something about them, but they’re still stronger than I am and I cannot.
“If I knew where poems come from. I'd go there.”
'The Observer ' article March 24 1991
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Michael Longley 4
poet 1939Related quotes
On choosing poetry as his go-to writing form in “'Felon' Author Says, 'Everybody Has To Tell Their Kids Something'” https://www.npr.org/2019/11/03/775605155/felon-author-says-everybody-has-to-tell-their-kids-something in NPR (2019 Nov 3)
“It is not where we have come from but where we are going that counts!”
Source: Think Big (1996), p. 193
“If I wasn't writing poems, I'd be washing my hands all the time.”
“You don't even know where I'm going."
"I don't care. I'd like to go anywhere.”
Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America
“It doesn't matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are
going.”