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" Some people want to call me an Appalachian writer, even though I know some people use regional labels to belittle. "
Robert Morgan
Me
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People
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" Alchemy is the art of far and near, and I think poetry is alchemy in that way. It's delightful to distort size, to see something that's tiny as though it were vast. "
Robert Morgan
See
Size
Poetry
" I love to compare different time frames. Poetry can evoke the time of the subject. By a very careful choice of words you can evoke an era, completely throw the poem into a different time scale. "
Robert Morgan
Time
You
Words
" One of the most powerful devices of poetry is the use of distortions. You can go from talking about the way a minute passes to the way a century passes, or a lifetime. "
Robert Morgan
Way
Go
Poetry
" What actually makes poetry poetry is of course impossible to define. We recognize it when we hear it, when we see it, but we can't define it. "
Robert Morgan
Define
See
Poetry
" Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity. "
Robert Morgan
Only
Perspective
Distance
" Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form. "
Robert Morgan
Poetry
Language
Attention
" Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry. "
Robert Morgan
Important
Over
Writing
" Fiction is about intimacy with characters, events, places. "
Robert Morgan
Events
Intimacy
Places
" I considered going to film school; I took a course in film and was very interested in filmmaking as well as film writing. "
Robert Morgan
Filmmaking
Going
Film
" Our most famous writers are Faulkner and Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. It would make sense that the poetry would reflect some of those same values, some of the same techniques. "
Robert Morgan
Reflect
Famous
Values
" One of the biggest changes that ever occurred in my life was going from the isolation of working part-time as a house painter in Henderson County, to Cornell, where everybody was a literary person. "
Robert Morgan
House
My Life
Life
" One of the most powerful devices is to distort time, to go from human time to atomic time, geologic time. Sometimes you can actually accomplish that, with one unexpected word choice. "
Robert Morgan
Powerful
Choice
Unexpected
" Pound's translation of Chinese poetry was maybe the most important thing I read. Eliot a little bit later. "
Robert Morgan
Important
The Most Important
Poetry
" The decision to write in prose instead of poetry is made more by the readers than by writers. Almost no one is interested in reading narrative in verse. "
Robert Morgan
Poetry
Decision
Narrative
" The young people have MTV and rock and roll. Why would they go to read poetry? Poetry belongs to the Stone Age. It awakens in us perceptions that go back to those times. "
Robert Morgan
People
Rock And Roll
Rock
" In the later books I am much more at home in the use of language to describe things. I had never thought of that until a critic pointed that out. "
Robert Morgan
I Am
Never
Thought
" I don't think poetry is something that can be taught. We can encourage young writers, but what you can't teach them is the very essence of poetry. "
Robert Morgan
You
Teach
Taught
" Among the American contemporaries I read with most enjoyment are several North Carolinians. I think the best poetry being written these days is being written by Southerners. "
Robert Morgan
American
Best
Enjoyment
" With prose you can incorporate more details, develop scenes, sustain the tension in a special way. Prose has its own speed. "
Robert Morgan
Own
Details
You
" The great watershed of modern poetry is French, more than English. "
Robert Morgan
More
Modern
English
" It was less a literary thing than a linguistic, philosophical preoccupation... discovering how far you can go with language to create immediate, elementary experience. "
Robert Morgan
Create
Experience
You
" When you have an idea for a story, you want those characters to reach as many people as you can. I think you normally think of prose as a way of doing that. It fits our time, the culture. "
Robert Morgan
People
You
Time
" I don't think American poetry has gotten any better in the past 35 years. Oddly enough, creative writing programs seem to have been good for fiction, and I would not have predicted that. "
Robert Morgan
Writing
Think
Past
" I encourage students to pursue an idea far enough so they can see what the cliches and stereotypes are. Only then do they begin to hit pay dirt. "
Robert Morgan
Stereotypes
Students
Dirt
" Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts. "
Robert Morgan
Some
Poetry
People
" If a poem is not memorable, there's probably something wrong. One of the problems of free verse is that much of the free verse poetry is not memorable. "
Robert Morgan
Memorable
Wrong
Free
" Neither of my parents has been very sensitive about my writing. "
Robert Morgan
Been
Writing
Sensitive
" In the best fiction, the language itself can become almost invisible. "
Robert Morgan
Language
Best
Invisible
" A poem in form still has to have voice, gesture, a sense of discovery, a metaphoric connection, as any poetry does. "
Robert Morgan
Discovery
Connection
Voice
" I write as a way of keeping myself going. You build your life around writing, and it's what gets you through. So it's partly just curiosity to see what you can do. "
Robert Morgan
Curiosity
Life
Myself