Richard Howard

“I believe in the art of translation as a substitute for the authority of the original.”

“A translation is a performance.”

“The task of the translator is to make what is foreign, familiar.”

“For me, the poem is a way of writing about what I don’t know.”

“All my poems are monologues, but they're not all dramatic.”

“I’ve always been interested in the way that history and the lives of people get turned into art.”

“I think that criticism is a very creative act.”

“What you have to do is find a way to be yourself. To be who you are and not who you think you should be.”

“The only reward for the poet is the poem.”