Tony Harrison Quotes

#1. Articulation is the tongue-tied's fighting.

Tony Harrison

#2. The ones we choose to love become our anchorwhen the hawser of the blood-tie's hacked, or frays.

Tony Harrison

#3. Smokers of the world unite!
On t'count o' three, all light up, right?
1-2-3...
You've all been cowed.
I've changed the law and it's allowed.
Try again then. 1-2-3:
all light your fags now after me.

Tony Harrison

#4. Sweet pulp and sour skin -
Or was it sweet outside, and sour within?

Tony Harrison

#5. I used to be scared of the Candyman. You'd say his name three times in the mirror and then he'd come get you. I was terrified of that stuff becoming true. My older cousins used to say things to make us believe crazy stories like that, so I was scared of the Candymanuntil I knew better.

Tony Harrison

#6. Not becoming 'something' scares me the most. I just want to be remembered for something great.

Tony Harrison

#7. Our heads will happen cold when this is found.

Tony Harrison

#8. I have always disliked the idea of an arts ghetto in which poetry is kept on a life-support system.

Tony Harrison

#9. Back in our silences and sullen looks,
for all the Scotch we drink, what's still between us
not the thirty or so years, but books, books, books.

Tony Harrison

#10. I don't really have one type favorite type of candy. When I was younger we used to always go to the rich neighborhoods where they give out the big candy bars, not the little fun-sized ones. We'd go back two and three times, hit them again and again. They didn't care and we loved it.

Tony Harrison

#11. I always like to be somebody scary. When I was little, my mom used to make our costumes. She's really creative and would make us great costumes without having to spend a lot.

Tony Harrison

#12. Poetry's the speech of kings. You're one of those
Shakespeare gives the comic bits to: prose!
All poetry (even Cockney Keats?) you see
's been dubbed by [Us] into RP,
Received Pronunciation, please believe [Us]
your speech is in the hands of the Receivers.

Tony Harrison

#13. Weeping for the dead's a waste of breath -
they're lucky, they can't die again.

Tony Harrison

#14. ah've been on t'dole all mi life in fucking Leeds!

Tony Harrison