27 Quotes by Richard Hugo

In the world of imagination, all things belong.

Assuming you can write clear English sentences, give up all worry about communication. If you want to communicate, use the telephone.

The car that brought you here still runs.

To write a poem you must have a streak of arrogance-- not in real life I hope. In real life try to be nice. It will save you a hell of a lot of trouble and give you more time to write.

You will find that you may rewrite and rewrite a poem and it never seems quite right. Then a much better poem may come rather fast and you wonder why you bothered with all that work on the earlier poem. Actually, the hard work you do on one poem is put in on all poems. The hard work on the first poem is responsible for the sudden ease of the second. If you just sit around waiting for the easy ones, nothing will come. Get to work.

I hate that phrase "the real world." Why is an aircraft factory more real than a university? Is it?

Never has your Buick / found this forward a gear.

A good creative-writing teacher can save a good writer a lot of time.

You owe reality nothing and the truth about your feelings everything.