Billy Collins

"The person in the poem is a character like a character in fiction whom the poet has invented--without clothes or a family, or a place of birth, just a voice--to convey himself. Any resemblance he bear…"

"For the translator of poetry, there is no activity that brings you into a closer, more intimate contact with language, both the second language and your own language, which translation allows you to e…"

"I was raised in a fairly strict religious family and attended 16 years of Catholic schools. I feel now that my sense of the spiritual is directly connected to my sense of wonder, my ability to be amaz…"

"I find it impossible to think of "favorite" poets. I would rather list the ones I cannot stand."

"The underlying theme of Western poetry is mortality. The theme of carpe diem asks us to seize the day because we have only a limited number of them. To see life through the lens of death is to approac…"

"It is important for the poet not to be emotional because you cannot see the world clearly with tears in your eyes."

"Wars begin through greed and vanity and are continued through the insanity of nationalism in which the boundaries of a land replace God."

"Novelists, playwrights, painters and others may hold in their heads the expectation of fame, but not poets. Having chosen that road, all one can dream of is the jealousy of one's rivals. Celebrity is …"