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Top 25 Kenneth Koch Quotes (2025 Update)

Kenneth Koch Quote: “You aren’t just the age you are. You are all the ages you ever have been!”

1. “You aren’t just the age you are. You are all the ages you ever have been!”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “All poetry comes from repetition.”

2. “All poetry comes from repetition.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “If you want to know how much I love and care for you, count the waves.”

3. “If you want to know how much I love and care for you, count the waves.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “When you finish a poem, it clicks shut like the top of a jewel box, but prose is endless. I haven’t experienced an awful lot of clicking shut!”

4. “When you finish a poem, it clicks shut like the top of a jewel box, but prose is endless. I haven’t experienced an awful lot of clicking shut!”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “Poetry is a deliberate attempt to make language suggestive and imprecise.”

5. “Poetry is a deliberate attempt to make language suggestive and imprecise.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “As for political poetry, as it’s usually defined, it seems there’s very little good political poetry.”

6. “As for political poetry, as it’s usually defined, it seems there’s very little good political poetry.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “You can’t be too influenced by a great poet. You simply have to live through it.”

7. “You can’t be too influenced by a great poet. You simply have to live through it.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “When you get an idea, go and write. Don’t waste it in conversation.”

8. “When you get an idea, go and write. Don’t waste it in conversation.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “It’s enormously cheering to get a good review by someone who seems to understand your work.”

9. “It’s enormously cheering to get a good review by someone who seems to understand your work.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “I thought, ‘There are a lot of poets who have the courage to look into the abyss, but there are very few who have the courage to look happiness in the face and write about it,’ which is what I wanted to be able to do.”

10. “I thought, ‘There are a lot of poets who have the courage to look into the abyss, but there are very few who have the courage to look happiness in the face and write about it,’ which is what I wanted to be able to do.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “I got married, other people went off. We had sort of another public-we were our entire readership for many years, and we were very excited by each other.”

11. “I got married, other people went off. We had sort of another public-we were our entire readership for many years, and we were very excited by each other.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “I probably misunderstand misunderstanding itself.”

12. “I probably misunderstand misunderstanding itself.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “I don’t think the nature of my poetry is satirical or even ironic, I think it’s essentially lyrical but again I don’t know if it’s my position to say what my poetry is like.”

13. “I don’t think the nature of my poetry is satirical or even ironic, I think it’s essentially lyrical but again I don’t know if it’s my position to say what my poetry is like.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “Poetry, which is written while no one is looking, is meant to be looked at for all time.”

14. “Poetry, which is written while no one is looking, is meant to be looked at for all time.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “I certainly have the feeling that I’m the same person even though I’ve changed a great deal.”

15. “I certainly have the feeling that I’m the same person even though I’ve changed a great deal.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “It’s a well known thing that ordinary perceptions can have a strange aspect when one is travelling.”

16. “It’s a well known thing that ordinary perceptions can have a strange aspect when one is travelling.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “I love painting and music, of course. I don’t know nearly as much about them as I know about poetry. I’ve certainly been influenced by fiction. I was overwhelmed by War and Peace when I read it, and I didn’t read it until I was in my late 20s.”

17. “I love painting and music, of course. I don’t know nearly as much about them as I know about poetry. I’ve certainly been influenced by fiction. I was overwhelmed by War and Peace when I read it, and I didn’t read it until I was in my late 20s.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “One trouble with a kind of falsely therapeutic and always reassuring attitude that it is easy to fall into with old people, is the tendency to be satisfied with too little.”

18. “One trouble with a kind of falsely therapeutic and always reassuring attitude that it is easy to fall into with old people, is the tendency to be satisfied with too little.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “It takes a long time to publish a book.”

19. “It takes a long time to publish a book.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “Maybe there are three or four really good poets in a generation.”

20. “Maybe there are three or four really good poets in a generation.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “I never thought of myself as a New York poet or as an American poet.”

21. “I never thought of myself as a New York poet or as an American poet.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “I’ve had trouble with criticism, I guess. It’s hard to know what role criticism plays in either encouraging poets or in getting other people to read them.”

22. “I’ve had trouble with criticism, I guess. It’s hard to know what role criticism plays in either encouraging poets or in getting other people to read them.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. My family was not nationally known as being a literary family, though my mother and my mother’s side of the family in general were interested in literature.”

23. “I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. My family was not nationally known as being a literary family, though my mother and my mother’s side of the family in general were interested in literature.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “Picasso said once when being interviewed that one should not be one’s own connoisseur.”

24. “Picasso said once when being interviewed that one should not be one’s own connoisseur.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “Once I start writing about something, it goes off rather fast, and sometimes details which might be interesting such as what the room looked like or what somebody said that was not exactly on the same subject tend to get lost.”

25. “Once I start writing about something, it goes off rather fast, and sometimes details which might be interesting such as what the room looked like or what somebody said that was not exactly on the same subject tend to get lost.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “I’m a writer who likes to be influenced.”

26. “I’m a writer who likes to be influenced.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “Politics is there the way men and women are there, the way the Atlantic Ocean is there. Sometimes I’ve written about politics specifically, I mean about politics as it’s understood on television and in newspapers.”

27. “Politics is there the way men and women are there, the way the Atlantic Ocean is there. Sometimes I’ve written about politics specifically, I mean about politics as it’s understood on television and in newspapers.”

— Kenneth Koch

Kenneth Koch Quote: “It seems everything is so full of possibilities one can hardly take it all in.”

28. “It seems everything is so full of possibilities one can hardly take it all in.”

— Kenneth Koch

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