Oppressed persons, oppressed cultures, tend to be more political, obviously, as are those with a rage for justice, or the crazy messianic desire. — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
For the Christian mystics, detachment meant to leave attachment so that God could enter you and take over completely and you could climb the ladder to their heaven. Kind of crazy, but what the hell? — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
“I am going to carry my bed into New York City tonight complete with dangling sheets and ripped blankets; I am going to push… — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
I've been trying to come to terms with what I am and what I do and what I believe in. And I see that… — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
“I think it's in Malone Dies that Beckett's creature is in a kind of prison or hospital. As I recall, he is visited twice… — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
I've changed over my writing life. If I can generalize, I would say that the more recent poems - believe it or not -… — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
There are hundreds of prisons - sexual, political, cultural. But being a prisoner also gives you impetus. — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
I've spent hundreds of hours working over words, and part of me, a large part of me, has a desire to do something else. — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
In America it's a particular problem. The artist, particularly the poet, is just unacknowledged; if I can use that dumb word. Maybe it has… — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
I will look at the footprints going in and out of the water and dream up a small blue good to talk to. — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
It's a kind of liberation to break free in language, if you can break free, but it's also a confinement, because form confines you… — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
I feel that my job, as an artist, is to disturb the peace. And to disturb it intellectually, linguistically, politically and literally. — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
Oppressed cultures often envy those which are not, or oppressed individuals do, and sometimes those which - and who - are not envy those… — Gerald Stern Copy Share Image
