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Billy Collins Quotes

born 1941 United States

Billy Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet, who was Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003 and the New York State Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006.

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Random Billy Collins quote

7 quotes

You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and — somehow — the wine.

But tonight, the lion of contentment
has placed a warm heavy paw on my chest.

The complexity of women's undergarments
in nineteenth-century America
is not to be waved off,
and I proceeded like a polar explorer
through clips, clasps, and moorings,
catches, straps, and whalebone stays,
sailing toward the iceberg of her nakedness.

It is important for the poet not to be emotional because you cannot see the world clearly with tears in your eyes.

Interview with Kritya: In the Name of Poetry (2004)

Wars begin through greed and vanity and are continued through the insanity of nationalism in which the boundaries of a land replace God.

Interview with Kritya: In the Name of Poetry (2004)

But tomorrow, dawn will come the way I picture her,
barefoot and disheveled, standing outside my window
in one of the fragile cotton dresses of the poor.
She will look in at me with her thin arms extended,
offering a handful of birdsong and a small cup of light.

I find it impossible to think of "favorite" poets. I would rather list the ones I cannot stand.

Interview with Kritya: In the Name of Poetry (2004)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Billy Collins (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.