Wislawa Szymborska
  • I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again.

  • Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry.

  • Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.

  • Unfortunately, poetry is not born in noise, in crowds, or on a bus. There have to be four walls and the certainty that the telephone will not ring. That's what writing is all about.

  • In the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone's existence in this world.