124 Quotes by James Arthur

My ideal reader is somebody who reads my poems out loud.

Poetry isn’t an efficient tool for preserving experience, any more than it’s an efficient mode of communication, but who says that it should be efficient?

When you recite you’re giving a performance, in the way that an actor or a singer performs, and some poets are not interested in doing that, maybe because they’re writing for a readership as opposed to an audience, or because they see poetry as a very private art.

Memorizing the work of others definitely made me a better writer.

In my case, performance is part of the medium. Sometimes I feel that it’s my main medium, and that the presentation of my poems on the page is secondary.

If poems very different from my own bring pleasure to a group of readers, who am I to say that the poems should have been written differently?

Everyone loves a comeback story, and everyone loves the underdog as well. I kind of feel like I've been the underdog. Hopefully that inspires people to not give up on themselves and their lives and not give up on their dreams.

I've always looked over my shoulder, especially in my hometown.

I'm a Honey G fan. She can spit some vibes on one of my songs; she's got rhymes for days! She's gangster. I love her.