Aaron Belz Quotes

#1. We just watch anything speed by. To stop and really ponder what a product label says, or the tagline on a TV commercial, might be inherently silly. Those are things that are almost designed to be thrown away.

Aaron Belz

#2. The brands with which we surround ourselves prop us up, make us feel sexy and beautiful, when in reality we're pretty dumpy creatures.

Aaron Belz

#3. Writing essays and teaching composition have helped me immensely in writing poetry, because they've forced me to focus on the structure of ideas.

Aaron Belz

#4. I want to leave my readers with a sequence of ideas/phrases that makes them question something they'd taken for granted. Or that confuses them to the point that they laugh, but contains one or two phrases/lines that stick in their minds.

Aaron Belz

#5. Negative space is important. When I teach students to read critically I advise them to look for what the author isn't saying just as carefully as for what he or she is.

Aaron Belz

#6. Poetry is a way for me to explore a tingly feeling, to let it play itself out, and also to map it. I feel like I'm making little star maps when I write poems.

Aaron Belz

#7. I don't really want to write fiction at all. I don't see why fiction is necessary when we have real life already confusing enough.

Aaron Belz

#8. Surprise keeps the reader awake. The only alternative is to continue saying what the reader is expecting. What fun is that?

Aaron Belz

#9. Nothing is as easy or natural as consumer brands want us to think - no problem is as resolvable. Your hair will fall out, eventually. Yet we do have these brands, and we line our shelves with them. There's an inherent irony.

Aaron Belz

#10. After the first few readings in comedy venues I did begin to write for laughs. There's something so gratifying about stimulating laughter.

Aaron Belz

#11. Whenever I do a comedy show I still just read poems, some of which are intentionally funny and some of which are just bizarre. The mix seems to work well.

Aaron Belz

#12. Humor and absurdism are inevitable. If you look at our current massive flow of consumer products and digital communication and related media from a sort of astute perspective and carefully state what you see you can't help but sounding like you're joking.

Aaron Belz

#13. The language itself is what gets me interested in writing. It's weird to me that words exist. Never a dull moment with words. They're a layer between our minds and the physical reality around us, obviously, but the layer seems like it's always in flux, like an asteroid belt, constantly moving.

Aaron Belz