Remarks by William Carlos Williams

“Not after the establishment, but speaking straight ahead.”

Williams's commitment to directness and American speech · Interview, Speaking Straight Ahead

A modernist credo valuing originality above all · Letter to Harriet Monroe (as commonly attributed)

“One thing I am convinced more and more is true and that is this: the only way to be truly happy is to make others happy.”

Happiness is found in generosity toward others · Letter / conversation (as commonly attributed)

“The beginning is assuredly the end — since we know nothing, pure and simple, beyond our own complexities.”

Human knowledge is bounded by our own nature · Prose statement (commonly attributed)

“Time is a storm in which we are all lost.”

Human beings are swept along by time beyond their control · Prose statement (commonly attributed)

“The yachts do not sink but go on with the race while only in the imagination are they seen to founder.”

Imagination reveals a deeper truth beneath surface appearances · Note to Henry W. Wells, 27 July 1955

“I wrote the whole damn thing with a change. I was thinking of terza rima, but gave up rime—the very vague imitation of Dante.”

Reflecting on the creative process behind The Yachts · Note to Henry W. Wells, 27 July 1955

“It's a strange world made up of disappointments for the most part. I keep writing largely because I get a satisfaction from it which can't be duplicated elsewhere.”

Writing offers a unique solace in a disappointing world · Letter to Robert McAlmon, 8 August 1943

“That's the release we get from writing, we may retreat there ourselves, into our own work from praise or censure—or contempt.”

Writing as a sanctuary from external judgment · Letter to Marianne Moore, 7 November 1944

“All artists are secretive and fly from a style which has been found out.”

Artists resist being categorised or pinned down · Letter to Marianne Moore, 7 November 1944

“I must express myself, but always completely incomplete.”

Expression is never finished; imperfection is inherent · Letter to Harriet Monroe, 14 October 1913

“To tell the truth, I myself never quite feel that I know what I am talking about — if I did, and when I do, the thing written seems nothing to me.”

Creative uncertainty as a condition of authentic expression · Letter to Harriet Monroe, 14 October 1913

“We talk about revolution as if it was peanuts. What we need is some frank thinking and a few revolutions in our own guts.”

True change must begin inwardly, not just in grand gestures · Letter to Robert McAlmon, 4 September 1943

“Why do we live? Most of us need the very thing we never ask for.”

Human beings often overlook their deepest needs · Letter to Robert McAlmon, 4 September 1943

“Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of man's being alone. It has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.”

Language distinguishes between the suffering and the richness of aloneness · Prose statement

“The poet is the happiest of men.”

Celebrating the unique fulfillment found in poetic creation · Interview, Speaking Straight Ahead

“By writing I rescue myself under all sorts of conditions from my sorrows and distresses.”

Writing as a personal refuge and source of healing · Interview, Speaking Straight Ahead

“The only thing necessary is to have something to say when at last the opportunity comes to say it.”

Preparation and substance matter more than occasion · Essay / review, Something to Say

“I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.”

Writing as an involuntary compulsion rather than a choice · Conversation / letter (as commonly attributed)

“If it ain't a pleasure, it ain't a poem.”

Poetry should arise from joy rather than obligation · Conversation / anecdote (commonly attributed)

“If they give you lined paper, write the other way.”

Encouraging independence and originality against convention · Conversation / anecdote (commonly attributed)

“Prose may carry a load of ill-defined matters like a ship. But poetry is the machine which drives it, pruned to a perfect economy.”

Contrasting the freight of prose with the efficient engine of poetry · Prose statement

“A poem is a small (or large) machine made out of words.”

Poetry as a precise, functional construction rather than ornament · Essay, Selected Essays of William Carlos Williams

“No ideas but in things.”

A core tenet of Williams's imagist poetics · Poem, Paterson

Pronunciation

Also Known As

Definition

Detailed Definition

Example

Additional Notes

Related Terms