Don’t give me that Christian forgiveness bullshit, Dukach. I’m a vindictive Jew!” he’d bellow.
This is a love story. It’s about the good old days, when men were men and women were women and books were books.
In 90 percent of cases, you could tell within a page or two whether the writer could write.
Publishing would be so wonderful without those wretched authors.
Be patient, work hard and consistently, have faith in your writing, and don’t be afraid to listen to constructive criticism.
I’ve always loved the poetry in ‘Pale Fire.’ I think it’s wonderful.
Poetry is really about your mental state or intellectual, and where you are, and you’re trying to evoke that, explain it to yourself, whatever, you’re trying to dig into it, analyse yourself.
I think poetry was always where I went to deal with my deepest feelings.
I’ve always used poetry to explain myself to myself. These things just sat in my psyche and then came out.
I love poetry; it’s my primary literary interest, and I suppose the kind of reading you do when you are reading poems – close reading – can carry over into how you read other things.
Poetry is not mainstream, but then neither is serious fiction, really. But I don’t think there’s a lot to worry about in this particular ‘problem’. Why does art have to be mainstream to be significant?
I think poetry should be read very much like prose, except that the line breaks should be acknowledged somehow.