“...discovering you are not identical with yourself even in the most disturbing and painful way still contains the glimmer, however refracted, of the world to come, where everything is the same but a little different because the past will be… — Ben Lerner Copy Share Image
I don't think it's always a sign of respect for persons (inside or outside of fiction) to pretend to be able to represent, to… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
Shaving is a way to start the workday by ritually not cutting your throat when you've the chance. — Ben Lerner Copy Share
I don't want to write poems that are just really clear about how I'm aware of all the traps involved in writing poetry; I… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
“What you need to do is harness the self-love you are hypostasizing as offspring, as the next generation of you, and let it branch… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
“And because his narrator was characterized above all by his anxiety regarding the disconnect between his internal experience and his social self-presentation,” — Ben Lerner Copy Share
“And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
“Part of what makes the book bizzare is that Whitman, because he wants to stand for everyone, because he wants to be less a… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
The problem is that if you're self-conscious about being a person on whom nothing is lost, isn't something lost - some kind of presence?… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
Most of us start from that position of irony now and what I wanted to do - really felt like I had to do… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
Laser technology has fulfilled our people's ancient dream of a blade so fine that the person it cuts remains standing and alive until he… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
“Our contempt for any particular poem must be perfect, be total, because only a ruthless reading that allows us to measure the gap between… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
If I was a poet, I had become one because poetry, more intensely than any other practice, could not evade its anachronism and marginality… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
Your interviews or blog posts or whatever are less supplements to your novel than part of it. I'm not private, but I believe in… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
“I’m going to kill the president. I promise. I surrender. I'm sorry. I'm gay. I'm pregnant. I'm dying. I'm not your father. You're fired.… — Ben Lerner Copy Share
