"Now I think poetry will save nothing from oblivion, but I keep writing about the ordinary because for me it's the home of the extraordinary, the only home."

--

Source : Philip Levine (2002). “So ask: essays, conversations, and interviews”, Univ of Michigan Pr

Philip Levine

#Home Quotes #Writing Quotes #Thinking Quotes

“If we need to be reminded to love one another, then we have already lost sight of the very essence of our existence.”
“What's cool about indie rock is that one band can do effectively the same thing as another band, and one band nails it, and the other one doesn't. I like that elusiveness.”
“I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then, "Nowhere Man" came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down...Song writing is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won't let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you're allowed sleep.”
“I was raised by my grandparents, and they always made sure that I had a pencil and some paper, whether we were in the car or at a restaurant. While they were enjoying a nice meal, I would be sitting there drawing funny pictures of the waitress.”
“People react predictably, especially when they don't have time to think.”
“In the theater lying is looked upon as an occupational disease.”
“I was super skeptical about doing TV. I said no three times, part of which was confidence because I didn't really understand that world. I know how to climb mountains and do all that, but I wasn't a TV person.”
“Within ten days thou wilt seem a god to those to whom thou art now a beast and an ape, if thou wilt return to thy principles and the worship of reason.”

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