Phrase by 'Billy Collins'

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There's something very authentic about humor, when you think about it. Anybody can pretend to be serious. But you can't pretend to be funny.

Author: Billy Collins - American Poet
  Humor , You , Serious , Funny


One of the disadvantages of poetry over popular music is that if you write a pop song, it naturally gets into people's heads as they listen in the car. You don't have to memorize a Paul Simon song; it's just in your head, and you can sing along. With a poem, you have to will yourself to memorize it.

Author: Billy Collins - American Poet
  Music , You , Yourself , Car


I learned snails don't have ears. They live in silence. They go slowly. Slowly, slowly in silence.

Author: Billy Collins - American Poet
  Live , Go , Silence , Ears


The poem is not, as someone put it, deflective of entry. But the real question is, 'What happens to the reader once he or she gets inside the poem?' That's the real question for me, is getting the reader into the poem and then taking the reader somewhere, because I think of poetry as a kind of form of travel writing.

Author: Billy Collins - American Poet
  Me , Think , Poetry , Travel


There are interesting forms of difficulty, and there are unprofitable forms of difficulty. I mean, I enjoy some difficult poetry, but some of it is impenetrable and I actually wouldn't want to penetrate it if I could, perhaps.

Author: Billy Collins - American Poet
  Want , Difficult , Poetry , Enjoy


Humor, for me, is really a gate of departure. It's a way of enticing a reader into a poem so that less funny things can take place later. It really is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.

Author: Billy Collins - American Poet
  Humor , Me , Place , Funny


I write with a Uni-Ball Onyx Micropoint on nine-by-seven bound notebooks made by a Canadian company called Blueline. After I do a few drafts, I type up the poem on a Macintosh G3 and then send it out the door.

Author: Billy Collins - American Poet
  Up , Out , Door , Company


I think what gets a poem going is an initiating line. Sometimes a first line will occur, and it goes nowhere; but other times - and this, I think, is a sense you develop - I can tell that the line wants to continue. If it does, I can feel a sense of momentum - the poem finds a reason for continuing.

Author: Billy Collins - American Poet
  You , Sometimes , Feel , Think


The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it has to do with tone because tone is the key signature for the poem. The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme.

Author: Billy Collins - American Poet
  Line , Trust , Rest , Key


Radio is such a perfect medium for the transmission of poetry, primarily because there just is the voice, there's no visual distraction.

Author: Billy Collins - American Poet
  Poetry , Voice , Perfect , Radio


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