Quotes by

Harry Mathews

Translation is the paradigm, the exemplar of all writing. It is translation that demonstrates most vividly the yearning for transformation that underlies every act involving speech, that supremely human gift. – Harry Mathews

Well, the great thing for me about poetry is that in good poems the dislocation of words, that is to say, the distance between what they say theyre saying and what they are actually saying is at its greatest. – Harry Mathews

My next project is to get back to that. Actually, to learn how to write poetry. Im not kidding. – Harry Mathews

Well, my relationship to America at the time I left was very limited. – Harry Mathews

Well, I had this little notion – I started writing when I was eleven, writing poetry. I was passionately addicted to it it was my great refuge through adolescence. – Harry Mathews