Stephen Dobyns Quotes

One writes a poem when one is so taken up by an emotional concept that one is unable to remain silent.

For the past thirty years or so, much American poetry has been marked by an earnestness that rejects the comic. This has nothing to do with seriousness. The comic can be very serious. The trouble with the earnest is that it seeks to be commended. It seeks to be praised for its intention more than for what it is saying.

Most women are more into real estate than sex. They want to own you.

It was as if pain were a room he had entered and the door had been locked behind him.