Sestina Quotes & Sayings

You were with Margo Roth Spiegelman last night? At THREE A.M.? I nodded. Alone? I nodded. Oh my God, if you hooked up with her, you have to tell me every single thing that happened. You have to write me a term paper on the look and feel of Margo Roth Spiegelman's breasts. Thrity pages, minimum! I want you to do a photo-realistic pencil drawing. A sculpture would also be acceptable. I was wondering if it would be possible for you to write a sestina about Margo Roth Spiegelman's breasts? Your six words are: pink, round, firmness, succulent, supple, and pillowy. Personally, I think at least one of the words should be buhbuhbuhbuh. — John Green

Happily, though we must each walk through life on our own, we don't have to do it alone. — Sheri Dew

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
and the child draws another inscrutable house. — Elizabeth Bishop

Self-giving means that we have to understand the nature of giving. When most people give, they give expecting a return on their investment. — Frederick Lenz

Sometimes, things need to come undone for better things to come together. — Amy Chan

Saul's vitals were not human, but familiar:
he never told me he was from another world:
I never told him I was from his future. — Joe Haldeman

Time
goes
too
fast.
Come
home. — Miller Williams

Happiness is the most tired word in any language. — Erol Ozan

You don't think that perhaps you have anger management issues?"
"Punching people is managing my anger. — Suzanne Wrightt

Lehman uses many conveyances - including the prose poem, the sestina, and curt rhymes - to travel across the writing life of a poet whose instinctive romanticism is always bracing and tough-minded, brimming with a rare generosity. — Ken Tucker

Cole - I just thought of a new game.
Jaz - What's that?
Cole - Splat the Specter.
Jaz - Rules?
Cole - You can help me make them up. Right now all I know for sure is that it involves water guns filled with grape Kool-Aid and two ferrets named Biff and Chlamydia.
Vayl - Why Ferrets?
Jaz - Really? You want to know about his choice of pets when he's named one of them after an STD? — Jennifer Rardin

That artists are called to be more responsible and 'true' is a tip of hat to their power. — Anna Deavere Smith

All I've ever wanted was to be near you. — Shannon Hale

If you want to be considered a poet, you will have to show mastery of the petrarchan sonnet form or the sestina. Your musical efforts must begin with well-formed fugues. There is no substitute for craft ... Art begins with craft, and there is no art until craft has been mastered. — Anthony Burgess

Radar half raised his hand. I dutifully called on him. Yes, I was wondering if it would be possible for you to write a sestina about Margo Roth Spiegelman's breasts? Your six words are: pink, round, firmness, succulent, supple, and pillowy. — John Green

I love form, but I'm not interested in forms. I've never written a sonnet or villanelle or sestina or any of that. For me, it's a kind of line. It's a rhythm. It's something musical. — Robert Pinsky

Bishop on "A Miracle for Breakfast" and Sestina Technique
It seems to me that there are two ways possible for a sestina. One is to use unusual words
as terminations, in which case they would have to be used differently as often as
possible - as you say, "change of scale." That would make a very highly seasoned kind of
poem. And the other way is to use as colorless words as possible - like Sidney, so that it
becomes less of a trick and more of a natural theme and variations. I guess I have tried to
do both at once. — Elizabeth Bishop

I am in love with his need — Margaret Atwood