Don Paterson Quotes

We turn from the light to see.

Inconveniently, books are all the pages in them, not just the ones you choose to read.

Imagine your shadow burning off the page / As the dear world and the dead word disengage

The poem, in a sense, is no more or less than a little machine for remembering itself ... Poetry is therefore primarily a commemorative act.

Mediocre art is far worse than bad art. Bad art does not waste our time.

There's no fury more righteous than that of a sinner accused of the wrong sin.

We could easily have evolved eyelids thick enough to keep out the light, but we still need to see the shadows fall across them. We're not yet safe.

After a long period of reflection, he decided that he was in fact right yet again.

Anything that elicits an immediate nod of recognition has only reconfirmed a prejudice.