“Concrete poetry began for me with the extraordinary sense that the syntax I had been using , the movement of language within me, af a physical level was no longer there. So it had to be replaced with ...”

Ian Hamilton Finlay

“The same sort of thing happened in my dispute with the National Trust book: Follies: A National Trust Guide, which implied that the only pleasure you can get from Folly architecture is by calling the ...”

Ian Hamilton Finlay

“For me concrete poetry was a particular way of using language which came out of a particular feeling, and I don't have control over whether this feeling is in me or not.”

Ian Hamilton Finlay

“But I can only write what the muse allows me to write. I cannot choose, I can only do what I am given, and I feel pleased when I feel close to concrete poetry - still.”

Ian Hamilton Finlay

“Well, probably I was fed up with concrete poetry. There was a lot of bad concrete poetry and besides, it was confused with visual poetry which was completely different.”

Ian Hamilton Finlay