Wislawa Szymborska Quotes about Writing

I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.

I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.

Writing, Writing Poems, Absurdity

Wislawa Szymborska, “Possibilities”

Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know.

Inspiration, Writing, Born

Wislawa Szymborska, Stanisław Barańczak, Clare Cavanagh (2000). “Poems, New and Collected, 1957-1997”, p.15, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The joy of writing. The power of preserving. Revenge of a mortal hand.

Wislawa Szymborska

Revenge, Writing, Hands

Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems”, p.46, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I usually write for the individual reader -though I would like to have many such readers. There are some poets who write for people assembled in big rooms, so they can live through something collectively. I prefer my reader to take my poem and have a one-on-one relationship with it.

Wislawa Szymborska

Writing, People, Rooms

Sometimes I write quickly, sometimes I spend several weeks on a single poem. I would really love for readers not to be able to guess which of the poems took so much work!

Wislawa Szymborska

Writing, Able, Sometimes

"Alone with the Greta Garbo of verse". Interview with James Hopkin, www.theguardian.com. July 15, 2000.

Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.

Wislawa Szymborska

Inspiration, Writing, Thinking

"Alone with the Greta Garbo of verse". Interview with James Hopkin, www.theguardian.com. July 15, 2000.