Denise Duhamel
"There really is a thing called poetry and it should be precise and evocative."
— Denise Duhamel
"Even if you are a great poet, it doesn't mean the road is easy. It's very hard and it might take a while to be recognized."
— Denise Duhamel
for Creatives | creating isn't easy, the successful artist, writing, poetry, reaching your audience, KEEP CREATING, Denise Duhamel
"When you write a love poem, the happy love poem, readers might be thinking 'screw you, I don't care.' When you write a love poem, there has to be the awareness of the fragility of life that you could lose this person at any moment, or this person could leave, or you could die. You have to have some shadow to prop up the poem; otherwise, it becomes sentimental, and you don't want sentimentality. You want sentiment but not sentimentality."
— Denise Duhamel
for Creatives | writing, poetry, reaching your audience, Denise Duhamel
"Today, there is an over-sharing of our lives. ... I'm not on Facebook and Twitter, and I'm actually a private person. I don't engage in any social media. To me, it's really interesting how we negotiate the private life, the private self, and what we make public. For me, it's easier to make 'art' public than just the day-to-day, blow-by-blow ad nauseam of every day life."
— Denise Duhamel
for Creatives | create for YOURSELF, artist integrity, reaching your audience, design your life, Denise Duhamel
"There is no way [writing] students are going to get better without reading. You must know who your literary parents are and who your grandparents are."
— Denise Duhamel
for Creatives | reading, writing, never stop LEARNING, Denise Duhamel
"Sharon Olds said that if you write down something and put it out into the world, it's a little murder. It just is. If you write down something and you put it in a drawer, it's a little suicide."
— Denise Duhamel
for Creatives | creating isn't easy, writing, reaching your audience, KEEP CREATING, feedback/criticism/rejection, Sharon Olds, TAKE RISKS, Denise Duhamel
"There are poems you write that are so on the edge they could go either way, especially when you take a very big risk."
— Denise Duhamel
for Creatives | intuitive writing & pantsing, creative process, writing, poetry, creating in the moment, TAKE RISKS, Denise Duhamel
"A lot of people tell me their stories because they think they know mine, and in a way, it's very gratifying. The more inward you become, the more universal you become."
— Denise Duhamel
for Creatives | artist integrity, writing, reaching your audience, writer-reader relationship, storytelling, Denise Duhamel