Top 12 Quotes & Sayings by James Tate

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American poet James Tate.

Last updated on December 3, 2024.

James Vincent Tate was an American poet. His work earned him the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He was a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

American - Poet | December 8, 1943 - July 8, 2015

Source: Wikipedia

I don't think you can define how you acquire your imagination any more than you can define why one person has a sense of humor and another doesn't. But I certainly would lean to the side that says all those solitary hours of daydreaming were a kind of training for poetry.

James Tate

When you don't sleep, you start to hallucinate, and that's not good.

James Tate

I love my funny poems, but I'd rather break your heart. And if I can do both in the same poem, that's the best.

James Tate

I can't know entirely what's at stake beforehand; you find out as you go. I love to take a poem, for instance, that starts with something seemingly frivolous or inconsequential and then grows in gravity until by the end it's something very serious.

James Tate

If you laughed earlier in the poem, and I bring you close to tears in the end, that's the best.

James Tate

I like to start with the ordinary, and then nudge it, and then think, 'What happens next, what happens next?'

James Tate

I was just sitting on my bed in a dormitory room, and I started writing. The thing that was magic about it was that once you put down one word, you could cross it out. I figured that out right away. I put down 'mountain,' and then I'd go, 'No - 'valley.' That's better.'

James Tate

William Waltz will take me through 'the buzz and clamor in a forest of hearts.' Adventures in the Lost Interiors of America is an adventure, I will go on this adventure with Waltz as a skillful, faithful, compass-true guide. I love this book.

James Tate

Something should always change in a poem. The persona should learn something.

James Tate

In You Are Not Dead Wendy Xu breaks all the old rules that have never done us any favors anyway. She writes beautifully, noticing who we are, and letting us see ourselves with a little more humanity, a little more humor, a little more humility. I'm happy to have read this book.

James Tate

Poetry is everywhere; it just needs editing.

James Tate

The challenge is always to find the ultimate in the ordinary horseshit.

James Tate

Top 12 Quotes & Sayings by James Tate

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