Kenneth Koch

I was influenced by surrealist poetry and painting as were thousands of other people, and it seems to me to have become a part of the way I write, but it's not.

Picasso said once when being interviewed that one should not be one's own connoisseur.

I've had trouble with criticism, I guess. It's hard to know what role criticism plays in either encouraging poets or in getting other people to read them.

We define ourselves as intelligent. That's odd, because we're doing the definition - We're creating our own definition and saying, 'We are intelligent!'

It is good to be in front of the lens to appreciate more being behind the lens.

The thing about great poetry is we have no defenses against it.