Two Quotes by John Berryman

I didn't want to be like Yeats; I wanted to be Yeats.

— John Berryman

“Nouns, verbs do not exist for what I feel.”

— John Berryman

Them lady poets must not marry, pal.

— John Berryman

We must travel in the direction of our fear.

— John Berryman

“Huffy Henry hid the day, unappeasable Henry sulked. I see his point,--a trying to put things over. It was the thought that they thought…

— John Berryman

These Songs are not meant to be understood, you understand. They are only meant to terrify & comfort.

— John Berryman

something has been said for sobriety but very little.

— John Berryman

“Springwater grow so thick it gonna clot and the pleasing ladies cease. I figure, yup, you is bad powers.”

— John Berryman

“The serious poet should seek to explore the 'sources' of these global nightmares-and to explore them not just in poetry, but in person. Poetry…

— John Berryman

I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored. Peoples bore me, literature bores me, especially great literature,

— John Berryman

“However things hurt, men hurt worse.”

— John Berryman

Two daiquiris withdrew into a corner of a gorgeous room and one told the other a lie.

— John Berryman