Poetry Career Quotes

I'm using my degree. You know, I studied English and American literature in college, and now I'm an American poet.

I published my first poem in 'The Paris Review' in 1980.

At the age of 15, a teacher had asked me what I wanted to do for a career, and without knowing why or even how I replied that I wanted to be a poet.

I never meant to be a full-time poet: I started out as a gardener, an ideal job for a poet because your head is left free.

I would not recommend poetry as a career. In the first place, it's impossible in this time and place - in this culture - to make poetry a career. The writing of poetry is one thing. It's an obsession, the scratching of a divine itch, and has nothing to do with money. You can, however, make a career out of being a poet by teaching, traveling around, and giving lectures. It's a thin living at best.

I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.

I earn more than I thought I would when I became a poet.

I had a million jobs before I managed to make a living out of poetry.

I was pushing for a career in poetry and of course the received wisdom was that you would never make a living at it.

People think they're gonna make a living off poetry. Ten years ago, maybe a couple of people did. Right now, no one, I don't think.

Well I guess the plan was to write poetry and publish books and make a living from writing poetry. That was a pretty ambitious plan I guess.

I'm the weird poet who has paid her dues in the experimental world for 30 or 40 years.

A stress on the system and I think a painful thing for many young poets who are looking to find a life in poetry that they're not going to be able to find.

I would say there are different kinds of poems. There are things that poets in the history of poetry hit upon when they're very young that can never be outdone and it's a remarkable, strange experience when you think of say Arthur Rimbaud who write poetry between the ages of 17 and 21 whose career was over by the time he was 22.