- Poet | January 23, 1930 -
The older I get, the more aware I am of the banality and indifference of a place like Trinidad to any development of the arts.
Derek Walcott
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There is a restless identity in the New World. The New World needs an identity without guilt or blame.
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In painting, you don't have to go through a process of opinion; it speaks directly, and either it works, or it doesn't.
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Musical composition, about which I know little, is a complicated art, and some contemporary music may be the equivalent of a complex abstract painting.
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I write plays and poetry at the same time, and I'm always refining, but I'm not obsessive about it. It's what I like to do, what I've always wanted to do.
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I can be upset by malice. Most critics are very poor poets. Poetry is a craft that takes a lot to appreciate, and there are some critics who have no ear for it. An irresponsible critic can do a lot of psychic damage, but eventually, they don't affect your work.
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Creating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your ignorance, in the sense of not knowing what's coming next.
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You can't read to yourself. It's your inner ear that hears a poem. If you hear a poet read his own work, it becomes very exciting. The melody is a great part of it.
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My mother hid the struggle from us children. She complained about her salary, and she had a tough time. Although she became a headmistress, she still had to do a lot of sewing. The more I think about her, the more remarkable I realise she was. And she understood straight away when I said that I wanted to write.
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I don't know what would have happened to me as a writer if I had gone to England and shaped my life out of England. Of course, I will never know, but I think I prefer what did happen.
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The headmaster asked to read one of my poems at some celebration or other when I was about 10. When I look back, that is phenomenal encouragement.
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