If I wrote in a sonnet form, I would be distorting. Or if I had some great new idea for line breaks and I used it in a poem, but it's really not right for that poem, but I wanted it, that would be distorting.
- Sharon Olds
New, Some, Breaks, Sonnet
Well, 'The Wellspring' was written from 1983 to 1986. And it had a section in the beginning that was poems that began from others' experience.
- Sharon Olds
Beginning, Began, Had, Wellspring
Their spirits and their visions are embodied in their craft. And so is mine. It's not Jane Saw Puff. But the clarity of Jane Saw Puff is precious to me.
- Sharon Olds
Precious, Craft, Mine, Visions
It might be a bad thing, not to know what's going on in the world. I can't say I really approve of it.
- Sharon Olds
Bad, Going, Might, Approve
There are some fine books and essays about that. Lewis Hyde has written about alcoholism and poets and the role that society gives its writers - encouraging them to die.
- Sharon Olds
Die, Some, Encouraging, Essays
When I quit all these things and said I didn't have any time, I meant I didn't have any time.
- Sharon Olds
Quit, Things, Meant, I Quit
Maybe we can use a metaphor for it, out of dance. I think for many years I was aware of the need, in dance and in life, to breathe deeply and to take in more air than we usually take in.
- Sharon Olds
Think, Maybe, I Think, Breathe
I'm not sure that the benefit - as a writer and as a citizen - that I would get from reading at least the front page of the Times every day or every other day would outweigh the depression.
- Sharon Olds
Other, Citizen, Sure, Front Page
My poems - I don't even like the sound of that, in a way. Not that anyone else wrote them. But we know that only people who are really close to us care about our personal experience.
- Sharon Olds
Experience, Sound, About, Personal Experience
This creature of the poem may assemble itself into a being with its own centrifugal force.
- Sharon Olds
Poem, May, Itself, Creature
The amount of horror one used to hear about in one village could be quite extreme. But one might not have heard about all the other villages' horrors at the same time.
- Sharon Olds
Other, Horror, Amount, Extreme
Many poets write books. They'll tell you: Well, I've got my next book, but there are two poems I need to write, one about x, one about y. This is a wonder to me.
- Sharon Olds
Book, Next, Tell, Poets
So I did quit coffee and I did quit smoking. But I haven't managed that with drinking!
- Sharon Olds
Coffee, Quit, Drinking, Smoking
I think that there are fiction writers for whom that works well. I could never do it. I feel as if, by the time I see that it's a poem, it's almost written in my head somewhere.
- Sharon Olds
I Think, By The Time, Works, Poem
The decision for me was whether to have 'The Father' be a book that told a story - from the point of view of this speaker, the daughter - without, as in the earlier books, then having a section on something else and a section on something else.
- Sharon Olds
Father, Decision, Having, Earlier
At one point I took on a new job, and I just didn't have time to do anything but work.
- Sharon Olds
Work, New, Took, Point
I wish I wrote more about the world at more distance from myself.
- Sharon Olds
Wish, World, I Wish, Distance
I think this is true for all artists. My senses are very important to me.
- Sharon Olds
Think, I Think, Very, Senses
Well, one thing I'm really interested in, when I'm writing, is being accurate.
- Sharon Olds
Writing, Well, One Thing, Accurate
I was very afraid that I wouldn't be able to do this job well. And the time never came back.
- Sharon Olds
Never, Able, Very, Afraid
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