Author Birthday – 20 October – Robert Pinsky

Happy Birthday, Robert Pinsky, born on 20 October 1940.

Robert Pinsky Quotes

1. An underestimated element in poetry, that reading aloud makes clear, is the pause. (Poems Aloud April 2009)
2. A sentence is like a tune. A memorable sentence gives its emotion a melodic shape. You want to hear it again, say it—in a way, to hum it to yourself. You desire, if only in the sound studio of your imagination, to repeat the physical experience of that sentence. That craving, emotional and intellectual but beginning in the body with a certain gesture of sound, is near the heart of poetry. (Goodreads)
3. If what you want to do is make good art, decide what’s good and try to imitate it. (Big Think)
4. There are no rules. However, principles may be discerned in actual practice; for example, in the way people actually speak, or in the lines the poets have written. (The Sounds of Poetry)
5. No aspect of a poem is more singular, more unique, than its rhythm. (The Sounds of Poetry)
6. I am very interested in memorization which is the process of incorporating a poem, so, I would say the kind of poetry I write is the kind that emphasises the physical qualities of the words. (WPFW-FM interview with Grace Cavalier)
7. The poet is a particular kind of expert. (Singing School -Learning to Write (and read) Poetry)

Robert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, translator, teacher, and speaker. His first two terms as United States Poet Laureate were marked by such visible dynamism—and such national enthusiasm in response—that the Library of Congress appointed him to an unprecedented third term. His anthology The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966-1996 was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. His most recent poetry collection, At the Foundling Hospital, was published in 2016. His poems search for the significance underlying everyday acts. They explore American culture, memory, and music. Pinsky is also the author of several prose titles, including On Poetry, Culture, and Democracy and his memoir Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet. Pinsky’s work has received the PEN/Voelcker Award, an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, and the William Carlos Williams Prize, among others. In 1997 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a professor of creative writing at Boston University. In 2015 the university named him a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor. Follow him on Facebook and visit his website.

Source for photograph: Author’s website

by Amanda Patterson
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