Simon Armitage Quotes

• The ordinary can be absolutely miraculous.

  Simon Armitage

  Ordinary, Miraculous

  17 Copy quote

• As far as I can tell, there are two kinds of poets: those who want to tell stories and sing songs, and those who want to work out the chemical equation for language and pass on their experiments as poetry.

  Simon Armitage

  Song, Art, Two

  17 Copy quote

• It’s never going to be very mainstream. One reason is that poetry requires concentration, both on the part of the writer and the reader. But it’s kind of unkillable, poetry. It’s our most ancient artform and I think it’s more relevant today than ever, because it’s one person saying what they really believe.

  Simon Armitage

  Believe, Thinking, Today

  12 Copy quote

• You’re beautiful because when you were born, undiscovered planets lined up to peep over the rim of your cradle and lay gifts of gravity and light at your miniature feet

  Simon Armitage

  Beautiful, Light, Feet

  Simon Armitage (2005). “The Shout: Selected Poems”, Houghton Mifflin

  16 Copy quote

• We still need a voice that thinks before it speaks.

  Simon Armitage

  Thinking, Voice, Needs

  10 Copy quote

• In all the poems I've written I've not really engaged in politics, and when I've found myself moving in that direction I've always stopped myself.

  Simon Armitage

  Moving, Found, Engaged

  "It's not poetry, it's a midlife crisis". Interview with Robert McCrum, www.theguardian.com. July 28, 2001.

  7 Copy quote

• People who read poetry, for example, like the feel, the heft and the smell of a book.

  Simon Armitage

  Book, Smell, People

  9 Copy quote

• If you were going to choose a way of making your way in this world and a place to start from, you might not choose poetry and you might not choose Huddersfield.

  Simon Armitage

  World, Might, Way

  11 Copy quote

• Where does the hand become the wrist?
  where does the neck become the shoulder? The watershed
  and then the weight, whatever turns up and tips us over that
  razor's edge
  between something and nothing, between
  one and the other.

  Simon Armitage

  Hands, Doe, Weight

  Simon Armitage (2005). “The Shout: Selected Poems”, Houghton Mifflin

  8 Copy quote

• Killing time in the precinct, I find a copy of one of my early volumes in a dump-bin on the pavement outside the charity shop. The price is 10p. It is a signed copy. Under the signature, in my own handwriting, are the words, "To mum and dad".

  Simon Armitage

  Dad, Signatures, Handwriting

  9 Copy quote

• This misfortune you find is of your own manufacture.

  Simon Armitage

  Karma, Misfortunes

  Simon Armitage (2011). “The Death of King Arthur”, p.62, Faber & Faber

  4 Copy quote

• This misfortune you find is of your own manufacture. Keep hold of what you have, it will harm no other, for hatred comes home to the hand that chose it.

  Simon Armitage

  Home, Hands, Hatred

  4 Copy quote

• And wonder, dread and war have lingered in that land where loss and love in turn have held the upper hand.

  Simon Armitage

  War, Loss, Hands

  Simon Armitage (2011). “Sir Gawain e il Cavaliere Verde”, p.22, Guanda

  7 Copy quote

• I once stood in the middle of New York city watching my name go round the electronic zipper sign in Times Square and I felt pretty thrilled, but not quite as thrilled as I felt when I saw my name in the Examiner for the first time.

  Simon Armitage

  New York, Squares, Zippers

  7 Copy quote

• I have to make myself write, sometimes. In the space between poems, you somehow forget how to do it, where to begin. It was good to be task - based for a while. I just came downstairs each day, picked the one I was going to do that day, and wrote.

  Simon Armitage

  Writing, Space, Tasks

  7 Copy quote

• The Huddersfield that I like best is a large town with a big heart and an open mind.

  Simon Armitage

  Heart, Mind, Towns

  7 Copy quote

• I wondered if people might not have had enough of Simon Armitage and wondered whether I hadn't had enough of Simon Armitage.

  Simon Armitage

  People, Might, Had Enough

  "It's not poetry, it's a midlife crisis". Interview with Robert McCrum, www.theguardian.com. July 28, 2001.

  7 Copy quote

• Somebody will be able to crack ebook files in the same way that people cracked music files a decade ago. An author could have worked for three years on his book, have someone buy it for their Kindle for £6.99 and then see it shared with everyone in the world for free.

  Simon Armitage

  Book, Years, People

  7 Copy quote

• I intend 'Dämmerung' to be an ironic meditation on the financial rewards of poetry and a tragicomic lament on the passing of time and the changes in literary taste. The other poets mentioned are my poetic cohort from the U.K. I wrote the piece in situ, as it were, while making a television documentary about World War I in Germany.

  Simon Armitage

  War, Meditation, Ironic

  6 Copy quote

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