I think that it's more likely that in my 60s and 70s I will be writing poetry rather than fiction.

— Robert Morgan

It was less a literary thing than a linguistic, philosophical preoccupation... discovering how far you can go with language to create immediate, elementary experience.

— Robert Morgan

One of the most powerful devices of poetry is the use of distortions. You can go from talking about the way a minute passes to the way a century passes, or a lifetime.

— Robert Morgan

Our most famous writers are Faulkner and Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor. It would make sense that the poetry would reflect some of those same values, some of the same techniques.

— Robert Morgan

Part of what we love about poetry is the fact that it seems ancient, that it has an authority of ancient language and ancient form, and that it's timeless, that it reaches back.

— Robert Morgan

Philip Larkin has a tough honesty and sense of humor that I find irresistible, as a contemporary poet.

— Robert Morgan

Poetry, almost by definition, calls attention to its language and form.

— Robert Morgan

Pound's translation of Chinese poetry was maybe the most important thing I read. Eliot a little bit later.

— Robert Morgan

Some people swear by writing courses, but whether it really helps American poetry, I have doubts.

— Robert Morgan

Teaching writing over the years intrudes on your own writing in important ways, taking away some of the excitement of poetry.

— Robert Morgan