Skip to content

The poet is in exile whether he is or he is not.

— Karl Shapiro Paris Review interview (1986)

Another quote →

More quotes by Karl Shapiro

The public has an unusual relationship to the poet: It doesn't even know that he is there.

As a third generation American I grew up with the obsessive idea of personal liberty which engrosses all Americans except the oldest and richest families.

The Poems of a Jew (1958)

Whitman to me is the most fascinating of American poets.

Paris Review interview (1986)

I feel that after working a long time, I’ve really learned how to do what I do. I enjoy it.

Paris Review interview (1986)

Writing, I crushed an insect with my nail
And thought nothing at all. A bit of wing
Caught my eye then, a gossamer so frail And exquisite, I saw in it a thing
That scorned the grossness of the thing I wrote.
It hung upon my finger like a sting.

All Karl Shapiro quotes →

Attribution

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