For a Jewish Puritan of the middle class, the novel is serious, the novel is work, the novel is conscientious application why, the novel is practically the retail business all over again.

Quote by Howard Nemerov

Topics: Howard Nemerov Quotes

I have a plot, but not much happens.

I have a plot, but not much happens.

Once in awhile you have a thought, and you rhyme it.

Once in awhile you have a thought, and you rhyme it.

A chronicle is very different from history proper.

A chronicle is very different from history proper.

Language is remarkable, except under the extreme constraints of mathematics and logic, it never can...

Language is remarkable, except under the extreme constraints of mathematics and logic, it never can...

Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.

Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.

The spirit world doesn't admit to communicating with me, so it's fairly even.

The spirit world doesn't admit to communicating with me, so it's fairly even.

Mostly the thought and the verse come inseparably. In my poem Poetics, it's as close...

Mostly the thought and the verse come inseparably. In my poem Poetics, it's as close...

I like all my children, even the squat and ugly ones.

I like all my children, even the squat and ugly ones.

It may be said that poems are in one way like icebergs: only about a...

It may be said that poems are in one way like icebergs: only about a...

The nice thing about the Bible is it doesn't give you too many facts. Two...

The nice thing about the Bible is it doesn't give you too many facts. Two...

I think there's one thing which distinguishes our art - we don't consider. We don't...

I think there's one thing which distinguishes our art - we don't consider. We don't...

I've never read a political poem that's accomplished anything. Poetry makes things happen, but rarely...

I've never read a political poem that's accomplished anything. Poetry makes things happen, but rarely...

I do insist on making what I hope is sense so there's always a coherent...

I do insist on making what I hope is sense so there's always a coherent...

I never abandoned either forms or freedom. I imagine that most of what could be...

I never abandoned either forms or freedom. I imagine that most of what could be...

When you write it doesn't occur to you that somebody could think different from what...

When you write it doesn't occur to you that somebody could think different from what...

The historian is terribly responsible to what he can discern are the facts of the...

The historian is terribly responsible to what he can discern are the facts of the...

Language cares.

Language cares.

When I was starting to write, the great influence was T.S. Eliot and after that...

When I was starting to write, the great influence was T.S. Eliot and after that...

Occasionally a student writer comes up with something really beautiful and moving, and you won't...

Occasionally a student writer comes up with something really beautiful and moving, and you won't...

Obvious enough that generalities work to protect the mind from the great outdoors; is it...

Obvious enough that generalities work to protect the mind from the great outdoors; is it...