Justin Cartwright Quotes

I have written a raucous valentine to a poet's dream and agony.

If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little - somebody who is obsessed by Making.

Losing my sight had nothing to do with my focus on music. My passion for music was already there, so it would be a mistake to give too much significance to my blindness.

An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.

Literature is a state of culture, poetry is a state of grace, before and after culture.

Because people are very interested in my poetry, in what I say.

I've always written, all my life, and when I was very young I developed an interest in poetry.

There's never been a culture without poetry in the history of the world.

Religious poetry, civic poetry, lyric or dramatic poetry are all categories of man's expression which are valid only if the endorsement of formal content is valid.

In fact, in lyric poetry, truthfulness becomes recognizable as a ring of truth within the medium itself.

Every good poet includes a critic, but the reverse is not true.

I think that concrete poetry seems to have, as far as I can see, come to a kind of a dead end. It doesn't seem to be going any further than it went in its high period of about five or six years ago.

I always wrote poetry and stuff like that, so putting songs together wasn't that spectacular.

There are no poetic ideas; only poetic utterances.

I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others; it's for others to use.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island.

I'm partial to epic poetry, which might be surprising given that I don't write poetry at all. The combination of rollicking storytelling with musical language seems to me the highest achievement.

Poetry is almost like my foundation for everything. I almost feel I am a better actor and writer because of it.

Music is closer to poetry than anything.

I always knew that was what I wanted to do - to write, particularly poetry.

I cannot say I'm a poet. That's for someone when they take in consideration where they can bestow 'poet' on. I can't do it. But I would be disingenuous if I didn't say that my intention is poetry.

'Finally' actually started out as a poem. I always wrote poetry, and pretty soon I figured out that if I could write poems, I could write songs.

I like bringing my poet brain and sensibility to lyrics I write.

When it comes to poetry, I think partly the numbers of people attempting to write poems is probably a result or the reaction to technology.