J. BERNLEF

How do I proceed? In any case, that is different with poetry and prose. Poetry is often present from a hunch, an image or a first sentence. Then you know that you have to put everything aside immediately and work on it, because in the early stages it is often so fleeting that you lose it in no time. A novel doesn't overwhelm you in that way.


From an interview in Poëziekrant, September 1986





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

MARCEL OBIAK

Poetry floats between philosophy and music.


From: Baal & Stuip, 7/8, 1965





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

RENAAT RAMON

Poetry that becomes a pamphlet ceases to be poetry.


In an interview with Alja Spaan in magazine Meander, 13-02-2025.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

CEES NOOTEBOOM

A poet who likes a painter can’t really avoid seeing the paintings of that painter as living beings, perhaps as persons and, if that is not allowed, at least things with their own universe on which the painting gives a glance. If the viewer remains the same, the painting can no longer change.


From his book Voorbije Passages





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

MARK INSINGEL (2)

With my poems I communicate the vicissitudes of communication. Language is a system, and a system works by generalizing. Generalizing is always falsifying because reality is constantly different, it is a one-off.





My work was already the starting point for a comparison with minimal and repetitive music, but I think that the connection with painting also applies. As far as talent is concerned, I often feel like a draftsman and a painter.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

RUTGER KOPLAND

It is a revelation – even a pleasure as far as I'm concerned – when someone manages to put something into words within a conversation in such a way that the other person recognizes something new in it. And that, of course, is closely related to what can happen in a poem. A poet tries to find words for what was still unverbalized."


In an interview to Piet Piryns, Vrij Nederland, 7 May 1988





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

CHARLES-FERDINAND RAMUZ

Where there is poetry, there is no loneliness anymore. That is why the poet is at the same time the least lonely and the most lonely of all men.


From: Journal 1896-1943





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl