You can't be too influenced by a great poet. You simply have to live through it. Kenneth Koch More Quotes by Kenneth Koch More Quotes From Kenneth Koch You aren't just the age you are. You are all the ages you ever have been! Kenneth Koch has-beens age I'm a writer who likes to be influenced. Kenneth Koch likes I thought, 'There are a lot of poets who have the courage to look into the abyss, but there are very few who have the courage to look happiness in the face and write about it,' which is what I wanted to be able to do. Kenneth Koch able writing looks Summer in the trees! “It is time to strangle several bad poets. Kenneth Koch poet summer tree One day the Nouns were clustered in the street. Kenneth Koch next-day one-day dark Poetry is a deliberate attempt to make language suggestive and imprecise. Kenneth Koch deliberate language poetry-is Certainly, it seems true enough that there's a good deal of irony in the world... I mean, if you live in a world full of politicians and advertising, there's obviously a lot of deception. Kenneth Koch hype deception mean I love painting and music, of course. I don't know nearly as much about them as I know about poetry. I've certainly been influenced by fiction. I was overwhelmed by War and Peace when I read it, and I didn't read it until I was in my late 20s. Kenneth Koch love war peace I never thought of myself as a New York poet or as an American poet. Kenneth Koch poetic poet new-york If you want to know how much I love and care for you, count the waves. Kenneth Koch care want love Once I start writing about something, it goes off rather fast, and sometimes details which might be interesting such as what the room looked like or what somebody said that was not exactly on the same subject tend to get lost. Kenneth Koch details writing interesting It's a well known thing that ordinary perceptions can have a strange aspect when one is travelling. Kenneth Koch perception journey ordinary I don't think the nature of my poetry is satirical or even ironic, I think it's essentially lyrical but again I don't know if it's my position to say what my poetry is like. Kenneth Koch lyrical ironic thinking It seems everything is so full of possibilities one can hardly take it all in. Kenneth Koch possibility seems Politics is there the way men and women are there, the way the Atlantic Ocean is there. Sometimes I've written about politics specifically, I mean about politics as it's understood on television and in newspapers. Kenneth Koch ocean men mean It's enormously cheering to get a good review by someone who seems to understand your work. Kenneth Koch reviews cheer seems When you get an idea, go and write. Don't waste it in conversation. Kenneth Koch waste writing ideas Maybe there are three or four really good poets in a generation. Kenneth Koch generations four three When you finish a poem, it clicks shut like the top of a jewel box, but prose is endless. I haven't experienced an awful lot of clicking shut! Kenneth Koch boxes awful jewels The subject matter of the stories on the surface... there seem to be a number of stories about travel. Kenneth Koch stories numbers travel
