... Now to die of grief would mean, I'm afraid, to die belatedly, while latecomers are unwelcome, particularly in the future. ...

— Joseph Brodsky

Of all the parts of your body, be most vigilant over your index finger, for it is blame-thirsty. A pointed finger is a victim’s logo.

— Joseph Brodsky

One of the worst things that can happen to an artist is to perceive himself as the owner of his art, and art as his tool. A product of the marketplace sensibility, this attitude barely differs on a psychological plane from the patron's view of the artist as a paid employee.

— Joseph Brodsky

People who buy 'The National Enquirer' would buy poetry. They should be given a choice. I'm absolutely serious.

— Joseph Brodsky

Poetry is not an art or a branch of art: it's something more.

— Joseph Brodsky

Poetry isn't just different from prose, it's more important for the human species.

— Joseph Brodsky

Poetry is rather an approach to things, to life, than it is typographical production.

— Joseph Brodsky

Poetry seems to be the only weapon able to beat language, using language's own means.

— Joseph Brodsky

[T]he accumulation of things not spelled out, not properly articulated, may result in neurosis.

— Joseph Brodsky

The charge frequently leveled against poetry - that it is difficult, obscure, hermetic and whatnot - indicates not the state of poetry but, frankly, the rung of the evolutionary ladder on which society is stuck.

— Joseph Brodsky