“But my research had taught me that the tissue of contradictions that was my personality was itself, at best, a poem, where “poem” is understood as referring to a failure of language to be equal to the possibilities it figures;… — Ben Lerner Copy Share Image
“When I spoke to her in Spanish I was not translating, I was not thinking my thoughts in English first, but I was nevertheless outside the language I was speaking, building simple sentences with the blocks I’d memorized, not communicating… — 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 Image
Shaving is a way to start the workday by ritually not cutting your throat when you've the chance. — Ben Lerner Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 moves and cleaves. Until we move, none of us can be sure that we have not already been cut in half, or in many pieces, by a blade of light. It is safest to assume that… — 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 the actual and the virtual will enable to to experience, if not a genuine poem—no such thing—a place for the genuine, whatever that might mean.” — Ben Lerner Copy Share
