Thom Gunn quotes - page 2

I admired what my students were writing, but I think their improvement doesn't directly result from me but from being in a class, being with each other. (Thom Gunn)
I notice that students, particularly for gay students, it's too easy to write about my last trick or something. It's not very interesting to the reader. View quote
Thom Gunn
It was difficult being a teacher and out of the closet in the '50s. By the time I retired, the English department was proud of having a gay poet of a certain minor fame. It was a very satisfactory change! View quote
Thom Gunn
These seem like bristles, and the hide is tough. No claw or web here: each foot ends in hoof. View quote
Thom Gunn
Distorting hackneyed words in hackneyed songs He turns revolt into a style, prolongs The impulse to a habit of the time. View quote
Thom Gunn
When I first started to write, I was aware of being queer, but I didn't write about it. Queer poems would probably not have been accepted by the editors I sent them to. View quote
Thom Gunn
When I was an undergraduate I had very badly annotated editions of Shakespeare's sonnets, all of which left out the important fact that will has a sexual sense in Shakespeare's sonnets. View quote
Thom Gunn
While I don't satisfy my curiosity about the way I work, I'm terribly curious about the way other poets work. But I would think that's true about many of us. View quote
Thom Gunn
A literary influence is never just a literary influence. It's also an influence in the way you see everything - in the way you feel your life. View quote
Thom Gunn
I was reading the poems of Rochester. Rochester made himself out to be bisexual, but I think that was only to shock. Most of his poetry is sexual, even pornographic. View quote
Thom Gunn