My mother carried on and supported us; her ambition had been to write… — Philip Levine

A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become. — W. H. Auden
There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking. — Jean de la Bruyere
I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry. — Rita Dove
No one can write like Vallejo and not sound like a fraud. He's just too much himself and not you. — Philip Levine
The irony is, going to work every day became the subject of probably my best poetry. — Philip Levine
I'm afraid we live at the mercy of a power, maybe a God, without mercy. And yet we find it, as I have, from others. — Philip Levine