"Visual surprise is natural in the Caribbean; it comes with the landscape, and faced with its beauty, the sigh of History dissolves."
Derek WalcottTiny Panda Quotes
Quotes by Derek Walcott
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"The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself."
Derek Walcott"All of the Antilles, every island, is an effort of memory: every mind, every racial biography culminating in amnesia and fog. Pieces of sunlight through the fog and sudden rainbows, arcs-en-ciel. That is the effort, the labour of the Antillean imagination, rebuilding its gods from bamboo frames, phrase by phrase."
Derek Walcott"A noun is not a name you give something. It is something you watch becoming itself, and you have to have the patience to find out what it is."
Derek Walcott"I don't want to write poems about the royal wedding. I would have to be moved by the event."
Derek Walcott"Ted Hughes is dead. That's a fact, OK. Then there's something called the poetry of Ted Hughes. The poetry of Ted Hughes is more real, very soon, than the myth that Ted Hughes existed - because that can't be proven."
Derek Walcott"I have never separated the writing of poetry from prayer. I have grown up believing it is a vocation, a religious vocation."
Derek Walcott"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."
Derek Walcott