Quotes by Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy

British poet and playwright

Lived from: 1955 -

Category: Writers (Contemporary) | Poets (Contemporary)

Born: 23 december 1955

Quotes 1 till 20 of 20.

  • As anyone who has the slightest knowledge of my work knows, I have little in common with Larkin, who was tall, taciturn and thin-on-top, and unlike him I laugh, nay, sneer, in the face of death. I will concede one point: we are both lesbian poets.
    Interviewed in The Guardian, August 31, 2002. [1]
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • Christmas is taken very seriously in this household. I believe in Father Christmas, and there's no way I'd do anything to undermine that belief.
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • Edinburgh is my favourite city. We'll be doing a lot of children's theatre and galleries.
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • Here.
    It will blind you with tears
    like a lover.
    It will make your reflection
    a wobbling photo of grief.
    Valentine, from Mean Time (1993)
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • If I felt, in the event of a royal wedding, inspired to write about people coming together in marriage or civil partnership, I would just be grateful to have an idea for the poem. And if I didn't, I'd ignore it.
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal.
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • Light gatherer. You fell from a star
    into my lap, the soft lamp at the bedside
    mirrored in you,
    and now you shine like a snowgirl,
    a buttercup under a chin, the wide blue yonder
    you squeal at and fly in.
    The Light Gatherer, from Feminine Gospels (2002)
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • Like the sand and the oyster, it's a creative irritant. In each poem, I'm trying to reveal a truth, so it can't have a fictional beginning.
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • Not a red rose or a satin heart.
    I give you an onion.
    It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
    It promises light
    like the careful undressing of love... I am trying to be truthful.
    Valentine, from Mean Time (1993)
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • One saw I was alive. Loosened
    his belt. My bowels opened in a ragged gape of fear.
    Between the gap of corpses I could see a child.
    The soldiers laughed. Only a matter of days separate
    this from acts of torture now. They shot her in the eye.
    Standing Female Nude (1985) Shooting Stars
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • Poets deal in writing about feelings and trying to find the language and images for intense feelings.
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • Somewhere on the other side of this wide night
    and the distance between us, I am thinking of you.
    The room is turning slowly away from the moon.
    Words, Wide Night, from The Other Country (1990)
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • The moment of inspiration can come from memory, or language, or the imagination, or experience - anything that makes an impression forcibly enough for language to form.
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • The poem is a form of texting... it's the original text. It's a perfecting of a feeling in language - it's a way of saying more with less, just as texting is.
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • The poem is the literary form of the 21st century. It's able to connect young people in a deep way to language... it's language as play.
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • This is the word tightrope. Now imagine
    a man, inching across it in the space
    between our thoughts. He holds our breath. There is no word net. You want him to fall, don't you?
    I guessed as much; he teeters but succeeds.
    The word applause is written all over him.
    Standing Female Nude (1985)
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • What do I have
    to help me, without spell or prayer,
    endure this hour, endless, heartless, anonymous,
    the death of love?
    Over, from Rapture (2004)
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • When you have a child, your previous life seems like someone else's. It's like living in a house and suddenly finding a room you didn't know was there, full of treasure and light.
    Interviewed in The Guardian, December 4, 2005. [2]
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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  • You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what's in your heart.
    ― Carol Ann Duffy
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Carol Ann Duffy?

The two most famous quotes from Carol Ann Duffy are:

  • "As anyone who has the slightest knowledge of my work knows, I have little in common with Larkin, who was tall, taciturn and thin-on-top, and unlike him I laugh, nay, sneer, in the face of death. I will concede one point: we are both lesbian poets."
  • "Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen."

When did Carol Ann Duffy live?

Carol Ann Duffy is still alive and was born in 1955.