31 Quotes by Kenneth Goldsmith

I think that writers often try too hard in the name of expression, when often it’s just a matter of reframing what’s around you or republishing a preexisting text into a new environment that makes for a successful work.

I don’t think that the world will ever become an unpoliced place, sadly. But I do feel that there is relative freedom on the margins.

Poets think in short lines. Unless you’re Samuel Beckett, Twitter might be more difficult for novelists.

It’s Twitter’s combination of simplicity and complexity that is astonishing in the same way that minimalist sculpture was inspiring and enlightening.

I’ve been trolled lots. But I understand trolls for what they are and I don’t let them get to me. They take my bait, so I’m in charge of the discourse.

We’re living in a time when the sheer amount of language has exponentially increased. As writers, if we wish to be contemporary, I think we need to acknowledge that the very nature of the materials that we’re working with – the landscape of language – is very different than it was a few decades ago.

All of our media is made of language: our films, our music, our images, and of course our words. How different this is from analog production, where, if you were somehow able to peel back the emulsion from, say, a photograph, you wouldn’t find a speck of language lurking below the surface.

The best thing about conceptual poetry is that it doesn’t need to be read. You don’t have to read it. As a matter of fact, you can write books, and you don’t even have to read them. My books, for example, are unreadable. All you need to know is the concept behind them. Here’s every word I spoke for a week. Here’s a year’s worth of weather reports... and without ever having to read these things, you understand them.

I think that the special thing about radio is the off switch. If something’s not pleasing you, turn it off.