The sigh of History rises over ruins, not over landscapes, and in the Antilles there are few ruins to sigh over, apart from the ruins of sugar estates and abandoned forts.

Quote by Derek Walcott

Topics: Derek Walcott Quotes

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's...

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's...

Any serious attempt to try to do something worthwhile is ritualistic.

Any serious attempt to try to do something worthwhile is ritualistic.

The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it...

The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it...

A culture, we all know, is made by its cities.

A culture, we all know, is made by its cities.

We make too much of that long groan which underlines the past.

We make too much of that long groan which underlines the past.

The personal vocabulary, the individual melody whose metre is one's biography, joins in that sound,...

The personal vocabulary, the individual melody whose metre is one's biography, joins in that sound,...

Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love...

Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love...

This is Port of Spain to me, a city ideal in its commercial and human...

This is Port of Spain to me, a city ideal in its commercial and human...

Visual surprise is natural in the Caribbean; it comes with the landscape, and faced with...

Visual surprise is natural in the Caribbean; it comes with the landscape, and faced with...

Memory that yearns to join the centre, a limb remembering the body from which it...

Memory that yearns to join the centre, a limb remembering the body from which it...

Because that is what such a city is, in the New World, a writer's heaven.

Because that is what such a city is, in the New World, a writer's heaven.

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's...

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's...

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh...

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh...

The most important thing for poets to do is to write as little as possible.

The most important thing for poets to do is to write as little as possible.

Nothing gives an author so much pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by...

Nothing gives an author so much pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by...

When I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for...

When I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for...

Women with clean houses do not have finished books.

Women with clean houses do not have finished books.

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an...

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an...

If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down. It's going to be the...

If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down. It's going to be the...

Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.

Observing humans and observing oneself yields a clear-minded starting point for literature.