21 Quotes by Cate Marvin

I prefer poems that occupy an imaginative sphere. When I lived in Cincinnati, I was occasionally referred to as an “Ohio Poet;” this made me uneasy, not only because I think of myself as a generally American poet but also because I like to think I write out of the country of my own mind.

I consider poetry my vocation, not my “career.” My career is as a university professor; that’s what pays the bills.

There IS a difference between poetry and prose! Poems should be sonically charged and new to the ear.

I like it when poems are challenging, when they concern matters important and personal to the author.

When fiction writers like my poems I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot.

One of the reasons poetry is such an amazing genre to work with is because it constantly reinvents itself and re-negotiates its terms with the reader.

I’ve just always loved animals. So I’ve often thought that if I weren’t a writer I’d work for some nonprofit organization that does something positive for animals.

New York is one of those places people tend to derive a sense of identity from – as if, were to you to remove them from the City, they’d turn limp and colorless.

I have no precise idea of who makes up my readership. I’m surprised when I discover people have read my poems at all.