Top 12 Quotes & Sayings by Diane Glancy

Writing is the hammer & chisel that breaks down the established way of thinking. A concrete event, then an abstraction. An image, then a thought. Finally, writing builds another establishment with the fragments.

Poetry saves what is human in this world going gaudy & insane. In exploring small truths, something larger might turn up, adding dimension, insight, vision, recognition to our lives. We just might be more complete, more aware after a poem.

Poetry uses the hub of a torque converter for a jello mold.

The word is important in Native American tradition. You speak the path on which you walk. Your words make the trail.

Words - as I speak or write them - make a path on which I walk.

Who creates unless he has a vacuum to fill?

Who thinks of justice unless he knows injustice?

I try. I am trying. I was trying. I will try. I shall in the meantime try. I sometimes have tried. I shall still by that time be trying.

Poetry examines an emotional truth. It's an experience filtered through the personality of the poet. We look to poetry for visions, not scientific truths. The poet's job is to combine new elements. Explore their melting, seeping into one another.

Poetry is road maintenance for a fragmented world which seeks to be kept together. It's been an integral activity for a long time.

It is easier to gnaw through bone. Than the hide of the heart.

20th century poetry is a piñata. Images break from the earth when the poet strikes it.