Stephen Dobyns said this quote

One writes a poem when one is so taken up by an emotional concept that one is unable to remain silent.

~ Stephen Dobyns

For the past thirty years or so, much American poetry has been marked by an earnestness that rejects the comic. This has nothing to do with seriousness. The comic can be very serious. The trouble with the earnest is that it seeks to be commended. It seeks to be praised for its intention more than for what it is saying.

~ Stephen Dobyns

Hesitancy is the surest destroyer of talent. One cannot be timorous and reticent, one must be original and loud. New metaphors, new rhythms, new expressions of emotion can only spring from unhindered gall. Nothing should interfere with that intuition--not the fear of appearing stupid, nor of offending somebody, nor jeopardizing publication, nor being trivial. The intuition must be as unhindered as a karate chop.

~ Stephen Dobyns

It was as if pain were a room he had entered and the door had been locked behind him.

~ Stephen Dobyns