Quotes & Sources The Fairfield Review,An On-line Literary Magazine for the Global Community.
Collins was asked to talk about revision. The questioner described his additional experiences since writing the first draft of his poem as having a new, expanded head. Collins replied: “Going back to your poem with this new, expanded head of yours is a fatal mistake. You should start a new poem. Revision is highly overrated.”
“If at first you don’t succeed, hide all evidence you ever tried. (O Henry?)”
“If I go back (for revision) it’s either for rhythm or for sound—tonal adjustments. But the run of meaning must be done in one sitting. Otherwise you change everything.”
“Better to get stuck and have a distinctive voice than to change all the time.”
Collins answered a question about vocabulary. “I try to have a simple palette, as a painter would say. Then when I use a complex word it stands out.”
“’You can’t fret a poem into being’ (Frost). There are lots of false starts. If it doesn’t work—sputters out—I pitch it.
--Billy Collins, "Conversation on Craft", Dodge Poetry Festival, September 21, 2002.
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