Poet Laureate Quotes

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

Thornton Wilder

#2. So I don't think I'll make Poet Laureate,
but I swear I'm not twisted and bitter,
If finely-wrought talents
don't weigh in the balance,
I can always write haiku on Twitter.

Rosy Cole

#3. A poet laureate of adolescent sexuality and middle-age longing.

William A. Henry III

#4. What does "poet laureate" mean? Nothing. It means a person with laurel branches twined around his head. Which is not something people do much now.

Nicholson Baker

#5. The poet laureate of England talked about murdering Jews on the West Bank.

Steven T. Katz

#6. When I became poet laureate, I was in a slightly uncomfortable position because I think a lot of poetry isn't worth reading.

Billy Collins

#7. Legendary rock musician. Poet laureate of the working class. Voice of America's conscience.

Harrison Howe

#8. I know some people might think it odd - unworthy even - for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people's poet so I write for the people.

Maya Angelou

#9. Ted Hughes has been appointed poet laureate to succeed Sir John Betjeman, which is a bit like appointing a grim young crow to replace a cuddly old teddy bear.

Philip Howard, 20th Earl Of Arundel

#10. My name was originally John Collins, but I just didn't think it had the flair I needed. I found out the poet laureate of Poland was named Krasinski and so it seemed like a shoe-in for show business.

John Krasinski

#11. They wrote to me and said something about it, and I said that if it doesn't involve any work, I'll do it.
(On being named Minnesota's first Poet Laureate)

Robert Bly

#12. Yes, I am the first Latino poet laureate in the United States. But I'm also here for everyone and from everyone. My voice is made by everyone's voices.

Juan Felipe Herrera

#13. It's the combination of the intimate and the public that I find so exciting about being poet laureate.

Rita Dove

#14. Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.

Rita Dove

#15. I was appointed Poet Laureate. It came totally out of the blue because most Poet Laureates had been considerably older than I. It was not something that I even had begun to dream about!

Rita Dove

#16. I knew if I lived long enough I would be poet laureate of something.

Patti Smith

#17. Amanuensis. That was the word she chose, and since it was straight out of the nineteenth century, her mother approved, relishing the blank stares she received when she told her lady guests what position her daughter had acquired with the State Poet Laureate.

Toni Morrison

#18. As poet laureate, I was asked to be a spokesman for literature.

Robert Hass

#19. People write me from all over the country, asking me, and sometimes even telling me, what they think a poet laureate should do. I found that immensely valuable.

Rita Dove

#20. I am honoured to have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of my esteemed colleague and fellow poet Mr. Dennis Lee, it will be with pride and passion that I carry forward the mandate of the Poet Laureate position for the City of Toronto and its residents.

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco

#21. Crowned with leaves of the laurel. In England the Poet Laureate is an officer of the sovereign's court, acting as dancing skeleton at every royal feast and singing-mute at every royal funeral.

Ambrose Bierce

#22. Would I be commenting on Amy Fisher?
Was that the sort of subject that someone who hoped to become poet laureate should discuss? Would those British laureates who had traditionally written about royal birthdays and royal jubilees have dealt with such goings on?

Calvin Trillin

#23. There are distinct duties of a poet laureate. I plan a reading series at the Library of Congress and advise the librarian. The rest is how I want to promote poetry.

Rita Dove

#24. Don't step backward toward nothing, step forward toward something, better awkward steps forward, than coward steps backward.

Victoria Addino

#25. Love is a word, another kind of open.
As the diamond comes
into a knot of flame
I am Black
because I come from the earth's inside
take my word for jewel
in the open light.

Audre Lorde

#26. Little Red Riding Hood sure is looking good.

Trista Jaszczak

#27. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.

Timothy Snyder

#28. She'd disappeared like a broken star, leaving the world untouched, save for the bits of missing light that no one would ever see again.

Stephanie Garber

#29. Life a continuous backing away from the edge.

Emma Cline

#30. So, the world is fine. We don't have to save the world - the world is big enough to look after itself. What we have to be concerned about, is whether or not the world we live in, will be capable of sustaining us in it. That's what we need to think about.

Douglas Adams

#31. My highest aspiration in life is to serve as the Limerick Laureate of Nantucket.

Alan C. Baird

#32. Poets sing our human music for us.

Carol Ann Duffy

#33. I have no fear, no fear at all. I wake up, and I have no fear. I go to bed without fear. Fear, fear, fear, fear. Yes, 'fear' is a word that is not in my vocabulary.

Steve Martin

#34. As time goes on, it becomes increasingly evident that the rules which the mathematician finds interesting are the same as those which Nature has chosen.

Paul Dirac

#35. I didn't want to take the DC universe, put it in a box, shake the box and pour it out. I wanted to take the major characters and show what they could be like if they were put on a different path.

Geoff Johns