--- title: "10 Want Quotes By Marge Piercy" description: "10 Want quotes by Marge Piercy. Plus more from Marge Piercy and more Want sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f06/marge-piercy-2610_listened_if-you-want-to-be-listened-to-you-should_2968921.png" --- > [If you want to be listened to, you should put in time listening.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/if-you-want-to-be-listened-to-you-should-put-in-time-listening/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f06/marge-piercy-2610_listened_if-you-want-to-be-listened-to-you-should_2968921.png) > [I have no connections here; only gusty collisions, rootless seedlings forced into bloom, that collapse. ... I am the Visiting Poet: a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/i-have-no-connections-here-only-gusty-collisions-rootless-seedlings/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/226/marge-piercy-2610_bloom_i-have-no-connections-here-only-gusty-co_1257982.jpg) > [Nobody hates us as ourselves. In their minds we're not human... They don't hate us because we did something or said something.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/nobody-hates-us-as-ourselves-in-their-minds-we-re-not-human-they-don/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3c2/marge-piercy-2610_don-t-hate_nobody-hates-us-as-ourselves-in-their-mi_2750817.png) > [Nobody can live on a bridge or plant potatoes but it is fine for comings and goings, meetings, partings and long views…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/nobody-can-live-on-a-bridge-or-plant-potatoes-but-it-is-fine-for/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eae/marge-piercy-2610_bridge_nobody-can-live-on-a-bridge-or-plant-pot_2245357.png) > [I don't find that writing about parts of my life had much effect except in some cases to improve my memory. To…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/i-don-t-find-that-writing-about-parts-of-my-life-had-much-effect/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e46/marge-piercy-2610_cases_i-don-t-find-that-writing-about-parts-of_697143.jpg) > [Listening is terribly important if you want to understand anything about people. You listen to what they say and how they say…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/listening-is-terribly-important-if-you-want-to-understand-anything/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6b7/marge-piercy-2610_ashamed_listening-is-terribly-important-if-you-w_2926982.jpg) > [Attention is love, what we must give children, mothers, fathers, pets, our friends, the news, the woes of others. What we want…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/attention-is-love-what-we-must-give-children-mothers-fathers-pets-our/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/060/marge-piercy-2610_attention_attention-is-love-what-we-must-give-chil_2458029.jpg) > [Love says, mine. Love says, I could eat you up. Love says, stay as you are, be my own private thing, don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/love-says-mine-love-says-i-could-eat-you-up-love-says-stay-as-you-are/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ab0/marge-piercy-2610_bones_love-says-mine-love-says-i-could-eat-you_1288291.png) > [I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/i-want-to-be-with-people-who-submerge-in-the-task-who-go-into-the/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ec0/marge-piercy-2610_bags_i-want-to-be-with-people-who-submerge-in_2791222.png) > [I will choose what enters me, what becomes flesh of my flesh. Without choice, no politics, no ethics lives. I am not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/i-will-choose-what-enters-me-what-becomes-flesh-of-my-flesh-without/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8d1/marge-piercy-2610_calves_i-will-choose-what-enters-me-what-become_659422.png) ## Other authors on Want ## More by Marge Piercy > [Shared laughter is erotic too.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/shared-laughter-is-erotic-too/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [Work is its own cure. You have to like it better than being loved.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/work-is-its-own-cure-you-have-to-like-it-better-than-being-loved/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [The anger of the weak never goes away, Professor, it just gets a little moldy. It molds like a beautiful blue cheese in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/the-anger-of-the-weak-never-goes-away-professor-it-just-gets-a-little/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [“The people I love the best jump into work head first without dallying in the shallows and swim off with sure strokes almost out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/the-people-i-love-the-best-jump-into-work-head-first-without-dallying/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [Every poet has a certain amount of "stuff." That's what you draw from for imagery. The more stuff you know well, not simply intellectually…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/every-poet-has-a-certain-amount-of-stuff-that-s-what-you-draw-from/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [the body is simple as a turtle / and straight as a dog: / the body cannot lie.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/the-body-is-simple-as-a-turtle-and-straight-as-a-dog-the-body-cannot/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [We must shine with hope, stained glass windows that shape light into icons, glow like lanterns borne before a procession. Who can bear hope…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/we-must-shine-with-hope-stained-glass-windows-that-shape-light-into/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [Remember that every son had a mother whose beloved son he was, and every woman had a mother whose beloved son she wasn't.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/remember-that-every-son-had-a-mother-whose-beloved-son-he-was-and/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [We live in a media soup and are constantly being programmed or are fighting that programming. Thus any truthful account of a life, every…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/we-live-in-a-media-soup-and-are-constantly-being-programmed-or-are/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [The moon is always female and so am I although often in the vale of razorblades I have wished I could put on and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/the-moon-is-always-female-and-so-am-i-although-often-in-the-vale-of/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [Sometimes when a character in a novel is difficult for me to enter, I sue something in myself or in my own life as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/sometimes-when-a-character-in-a-novel-is-difficult-for-me-to-enter-i/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [Doorways are sacred to women for we are the doorways of life and we must choose what comes in and what goes out.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/doorways-are-sacred-to-women-for-we-are-the-doorways-of-life-and-we/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [“Writing sometimes feels frivolous and sometimes sacred, but memory is one of my strongest muses. I serve her with my words. So long as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/writing-sometimes-feels-frivolous-and-sometimes-sacred-but-memory-is/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [The work of the world is common as mud. Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust. But the thing worth doing well done…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/the-work-of-the-world-is-common-as-mud-botched-it-smears-the-hands/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) > [We're herded into schools and terrified into behaving. Taught how we're supposed to pretend to be, taught to parrot all kinds of nonsense at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/we-re-herded-into-schools-and-terrified-into-behaving-taught-how-we/) [Marge Piercy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marge-piercy/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/want/marge-piercy/#itemlist", "name": "10 Want Quotes By Marge Piercy", "numberOfItems": 10, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "If you want to be listened to, you should put in time listening.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marge Piercy" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/if-you-want-to-be-listened-to-you-should-put-in-time-listening/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f06/marge-piercy-2610_listened_if-you-want-to-be-listened-to-you-should_2968921.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f06/marge-piercy-2610_listened_if-you-want-to-be-listened-to-you-should_2968921.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f06/marge-piercy-2610_listened_if-you-want-to-be-listened-to-you-should_2968921.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“If you want to be listened to, you should put in time listening.” — Marge Piercy", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I have no connections here; only gusty collisions, rootless seedlings forced into bloom, that collapse. ... I am the Visiting Poet: a real unicorn, a wind-up plush dodo, a wax museum of the Movement. People want to push the buttons and see me glow.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marge Piercy" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/i-have-no-connections-here-only-gusty-collisions-rootless-seedlings/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/226/marge-piercy-2610_bloom_i-have-no-connections-here-only-gusty-co_1257982.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/226/marge-piercy-2610_bloom_i-have-no-connections-here-only-gusty-co_1257982.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/226/marge-piercy-2610_bloom_i-have-no-connections-here-only-gusty-co_1257982.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I have no connections here; only gusty collisions, rootless seedlings forced into bloom, that collapse…” — Marge Piercy", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Nobody hates us as ourselves. In their minds we're not human... They don't hate us because we did something or said something. They make us stand for an evil they invent and then they want to kill it in us.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marge Piercy" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/nobody-hates-us-as-ourselves-in-their-minds-we-re-not-human-they-don/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3c2/marge-piercy-2610_don-t-hate_nobody-hates-us-as-ourselves-in-their-mi_2750817.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3c2/marge-piercy-2610_don-t-hate_nobody-hates-us-as-ourselves-in-their-mi_2750817.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3c2/marge-piercy-2610_don-t-hate_nobody-hates-us-as-ourselves-in-their-mi_2750817.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Nobody hates us as ourselves. In their minds we're not human... They don't hate us because we did something…” — Marge Piercy", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Nobody can live on a bridge or plant potatoes but it is fine for comings and goings, meetings, partings and long views and a real connection to someplace else where you may in the crazy weathers of struggle how and again want to be.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marge Piercy" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/nobody-can-live-on-a-bridge-or-plant-potatoes-but-it-is-fine-for/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eae/marge-piercy-2610_bridge_nobody-can-live-on-a-bridge-or-plant-pot_2245357.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eae/marge-piercy-2610_bridge_nobody-can-live-on-a-bridge-or-plant-pot_2245357.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/eae/marge-piercy-2610_bridge_nobody-can-live-on-a-bridge-or-plant-pot_2245357.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Nobody can live on a bridge or plant potatoes but it is fine for comings and goings, meetings, partings and…” — Marge Piercy", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I don't find that writing about parts of my life had much effect except in some cases to improve my memory. To get into parts of the past I want to recall very vividly, I use a form of directed meditation.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marge Piercy" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/i-don-t-find-that-writing-about-parts-of-my-life-had-much-effect/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e46/marge-piercy-2610_cases_i-don-t-find-that-writing-about-parts-of_697143.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e46/marge-piercy-2610_cases_i-don-t-find-that-writing-about-parts-of_697143.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e46/marge-piercy-2610_cases_i-don-t-find-that-writing-about-parts-of_697143.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I don't find that writing about parts of my life had much effect except in some cases to improve my memory…” — Marge Piercy", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Listening is terribly important if you want to understand anything about people. You listen to what they say and how they say it, what they share and what they are reticent about, what they tell truthfully and what they lie about, what they hope for and what they fear, what they are proud of, what they are ashamed of. If you don't pay attention to other people, how can you understand their choices through time and how their stories come out?", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marge Piercy" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/listening-is-terribly-important-if-you-want-to-understand-anything/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6b7/marge-piercy-2610_ashamed_listening-is-terribly-important-if-you-w_2926982.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6b7/marge-piercy-2610_ashamed_listening-is-terribly-important-if-you-w_2926982.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6b7/marge-piercy-2610_ashamed_listening-is-terribly-important-if-you-w_2926982.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Listening is terribly important if you want to understand anything about people. You listen to what they say…” — Marge Piercy", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Attention is love, what we must give children, mothers, fathers, pets, our friends, the news, the woes of others. What we want to change we curse and then pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can with eyes and hands and tongue. If you can't bless it, get ready to make it new.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marge Piercy" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/attention-is-love-what-we-must-give-children-mothers-fathers-pets-our/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/060/marge-piercy-2610_attention_attention-is-love-what-we-must-give-chil_2458029.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/060/marge-piercy-2610_attention_attention-is-love-what-we-must-give-chil_2458029.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/060/marge-piercy-2610_attention_attention-is-love-what-we-must-give-chil_2458029.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Attention is love, what we must give children, mothers, fathers, pets, our friends, the news, the woes of…” — Marge Piercy", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Love says, mine. Love says, I could eat you up. Love says, stay as you are, be my own private thing, don't you dare have ideas I don't share. Love has just got to gobble the other, bones and all, crunch. I don't want to do that. I sure don't want it done to me!", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marge Piercy" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/love-says-mine-love-says-i-could-eat-you-up-love-says-stay-as-you-are/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ab0/marge-piercy-2610_bones_love-says-mine-love-says-i-could-eat-you_1288291.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ab0/marge-piercy-2610_bones_love-says-mine-love-says-i-could-eat-you_1288291.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ab0/marge-piercy-2610_bones_love-says-mine-love-says-i-could-eat-you_1288291.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Love says, mine. Love says, I could eat you up. Love says, stay as you are, be my own private thing, don't…” — Marge Piercy", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along, who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out. The work of the world is common as mud. Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust. But the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marge Piercy" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/i-want-to-be-with-people-who-submerge-in-the-task-who-go-into-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ec0/marge-piercy-2610_bags_i-want-to-be-with-people-who-submerge-in_2791222.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ec0/marge-piercy-2610_bags_i-want-to-be-with-people-who-submerge-in_2791222.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ec0/marge-piercy-2610_bags_i-want-to-be-with-people-who-submerge-in_2791222.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I want to be with people who submerge in the task, who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and…” — Marge Piercy", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I will choose what enters me, what becomes flesh of my flesh. Without choice, no politics, no ethics lives. I am not your cornfield, not your uranium mine, not your calf for fattening, not your cow for milking. You may not use me as your factory. Priests and legislators do not hold shares in my womb or my mind. If I give it to you, I want it back. My life is a non-negotiable demand.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marge Piercy" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marge-piercy/i-will-choose-what-enters-me-what-becomes-flesh-of-my-flesh-without/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8d1/marge-piercy-2610_calves_i-will-choose-what-enters-me-what-become_659422.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8d1/marge-piercy-2610_calves_i-will-choose-what-enters-me-what-become_659422.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8d1/marge-piercy-2610_calves_i-will-choose-what-enters-me-what-become_659422.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I will choose what enters me, what becomes flesh of my flesh. Without choice, no politics, no ethics lives…” — Marge Piercy", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/want/marge-piercy/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/want/marge-piercy/", "name": "Want Quotes by Marge Piercy", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/want/marge-piercy/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f06/marge-piercy-2610_listened_if-you-want-to-be-listened-to-you-should_2968921.png" }, "description": "10 Want quotes by Marge Piercy. 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