I'm very pessimistic about the future of the human species. We have been so indifferent to life on the whole that it will take its toll. It's not just the polar bears that are having a hard time; what we're… — W. S. Merwin Copy Share Image
It's an attitude of superiority. We are superior to the rest of life. The Book of Genesis says: 'Increase and multiply and have dominion over the birds of the air and the animals and so forth.' You run it; it's… — W. S. Merwin Copy Share Image
When a poem is really finished, you can't change anything. You can't move words around. You can't say, 'In other words, you mean.' No,… — W. S. Merwin Copy Share Image
I also think that life itself is both indifferent to us and the source of all of our joys and everything that we love.… — W. S. Merwin Copy Share Image
I think it's good for anybody to learn languages. Americans are particularly limited in that way. Europeans less so... We're beginning to have Spanish move in on English in the states because of all the people coming from Hispanic countries... and we're beginning to learn some Spanish. And I think that's a good thing... Only having one language is very… — W. S. Merwin Copy Share
You have to be rather relentless about pushing other things out of the way. This activity of writing, which has no promises attached to… — W. S. Merwin Copy Share Image
Laughter was the shape the darkness took around the first appearance of the light. — W. S. Merwin Copy Share Image
In a sense, much that is learned is bound to be bad habits. You're always beginning again. — W. S. Merwin Copy Share Image
I go five steps in the garden, and I immediately lose track of time... it is a kind of joy in being alive in… — W. S. Merwin Copy Share Image
What I really believe is the only hopeful relation between our life and the whole of life is one of reverence and respect and… — W. S. Merwin Copy Share Image
As soon as I could write with a little pencil, I was writing these little hymns and illustrating them, and I thought they should… — W. S. Merwin Copy Share Image
There are aspects of human life that are not purely destructive, and there is a need to pay attention to the things around us… — W. S. Merwin Copy Share Image
