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

Quote by Howard Nemerov

Topics: Howard Nemerov Quotes

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...

I am not at all clear what free verse is anymore. That's one of the...

I am not at all clear what free verse is anymore. That's one of the...

Shakespeare tells the same stories over and over in so many guises that it takes...

Shakespeare tells the same stories over and over in so many guises that it takes...

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...

When Robert Frost was alive, I was known as the other new England poet, which...

When Robert Frost was alive, I was known as the other new England poet, which...

I have a plot, but not much happens.

I have a plot, but not much happens.

A teacher is a person who never says anything once.

A teacher is a person who never says anything once.

We're not in love with Literature all the time - especially when you have to...

We're not in love with Literature all the time - especially when you have to...

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...

History is one of those marvelous and necessary illusions we have to deal with. It's...

History is one of those marvelous and necessary illusions we have to deal with. It's...

A lot happens by accident in poetry.

A lot happens by accident in poetry.

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 sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem.

I sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem.

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...

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...

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...

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.

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

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

When modern writers gave up telling stories, they gave up the greatest thing we had.

When modern writers gave up telling stories, they gave up the greatest thing we had.

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

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