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The job of the poet is to use language effectively, his own language, the only language which is to him authentic.

— William Carlos Williams

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Communication

More quotes by William Carlos Williams

There’s nothing sentimental about a machine, and: A poem is a small (or large) machine made of words.

The Wedge (1944)

Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted, they
grip down and begin to awaken.

Spring and All (1923)

Saxifrage is my flower that splits
the rocks.

The Wedge (1944)

It's a strange courage
you give me ancient star: Shine alone in the sunrise
toward which you lend no part!

Al Que Quiere! (1917)

Prose may carry a load of ill-defined matters like a ship. But poetry is the machine which drives it, pruned to a perfect economy.

The Wedge (1944)

All William Carlos Williams quotes →

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Strength of creative writing lies in the skill of handling words and articulating artistic expression of feelings.”

Suman Pokhrel

An entire mythology is stored within our language.

Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951 (1993)

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.

George Eliot

Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth,
When thought is speech, and speech is truth.

Walter Scott Marmion (1808)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Carlos Williams (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.