Richard Hugo Quotes & Sayings

#1. I was willingly confused by the times

#2. If that's too mythical a tone
consider those who conform and know something's wrong
and need a zany few who won't obey.

Richard Hugo

#3. An act of imagination is an act of self-acceptance.

Richard Hugo

#4. Maximum sentence length: seventeen words. Minimum:one No semicolons. Semicolons indicate relationships that only idiots need defined by punctuation. Besides, they are ugly. Make sure each sentence is at least four words longer or shorter than the one before it.

Richard Hugo

#5. Scholars look for final truths they will never find. Creative writers concern themselves with possibilities that are always there to the receptive.

Richard Hugo

#6. Never want to say anything so strongly that you give up the option of finding something better. If you have to say it, you will.

Richard Hugo

#7. A poet is seldom hard up for advice. The worst part of it all is that sometimes the advice is coming from other poets, and they ought to know better.

Richard Hugo

#8. Never write a poem about anything that ought to have a poem written about it.

Richard Hugo

#9. Say nothing and just make music and you'll find plenty to say.

Richard Hugo

#10. Believe you and I sing tiny
and wise and could if we had to eat stone and go on.

Richard Hugo

#11. Never has your Buick / found this forward a gear.

Richard Hugo

#12. Assuming you can write clear English sentences, give up all worry about communication. If you want to communicate, use the telephone.

Richard Hugo

#13. A creative writing class may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters.

Richard Hugo

#14. Don't write love poems when you're in love. Write them when you're not in love.

Richard Hugo

#15. Lovers inside and horses ignoring the lovers. And the creek nearby. The willows. That was the scene. I forget the sky. The sky, let's say, was green and dotted with silly clouds that looked like dimes. Then

Richard Hugo

#16. You are someone and you have a right to your life.

Richard Hugo

#17. I will garden on the double run,
my rhythm obvious in the ringing rakes,
and trust in fate to keep me poor and kind
and work until my heart is short,
then go out slowly with a feeble grin,
my fingers flexing but my eyes gone gray
from cramps and the lack of oxygen.

Richard Hugo

#18. I hate that phrase "the real world." Why is an aircraft factory more real than a university? Is it?

Richard Hugo

#19. To write a poem you must have a streak of arrogance
not in real life I hope. In real life try to be nice. It will save you a hell of a lot of trouble and give you more time to write.

Richard Hugo

#20. Rub a half potato on your wart
and wrap it in a damp cloth. Close
your eyes and whirl three times and throw.
Then bury rag and spud exactly where they fall.

Richard Hugo