Wendy Cope Quotes

Wendy Cope serves up witty, absurd tales about love and everyday mishaps.

17 quotes

  1. Bloody men are like bloody buses - You wait for about a year And as soon as one approaches your stop Two or three others appear.

  2. The day he moved out was terrible - That evening she went through hell. His absence wasn't a problem But the corkscrew had gone as well.

  3. And happy families go to church and cheerily they mingle And the whole business is unbelievably dreadful, if you're single.

  4. My true love hath my heart and I have hers We swapped last Tuesday and felt quite elated But now whenever one of us refers To 'my heart' things get rather complicated.

  5. In April one seldom feels cheerful; Dry stones, sun and dust make me fearful; Clairvoyants distress me, Commuters depress me- Met Stetson and gave him an earful.

  6. The reason modern poetry is difficult is so that the poet's wife cannot understand it.

  7. I like buying clothes, especially as I get a tax-deductible allowance.

  8. I've never been more famous than I was, suddenly, in 1986.

  9. In my case, the long gaps between my books have got quite a lot to do with lack of confidence. A lot of the time when I'm not writing I start thinking I can't do it.

  10. I used to think all poets were Byronic Mad, bad and dangerous to know. And then I met a few. See Lamb 486:25.

  11. I always tell students that writing a poem and publishing it are two quite separate things, and you should write what you have to write, and if you're afraid it's going to upset someone, don't publish it.

  12. Bloody Christmas, here again, let us raise a loving cup, peace on earth, goodwill to men, and make them do the washing up.

  13. There is some humour in 'Family Values.' I don't want everyone to think it's not going to make them laugh. But there are quite a lot of poems there that aren't funny at all.

  14. I've said what I'm prepared to say in my poems, and then journalists think that you're going to tell them a whole lot more.

  15. When a poem doesn't work, the first question to ask yourself is, 'Am I telling the truth?'

  16. My heart has made its mind up And I’m afraid it’s you. Whatever you’ve got lined up, My heart has made its mind up And if you can’t be signed up This year, next year will do. My heart has made its mind up And I’m afraid it’s you.

  17. The interesting thing is that you don't often meet a poet who doesn't have a sense of humour, and some of them do keep it out of their poems because they're afraid of being seen as light versifiers.