Well, one is inspired by the whole of life, one's own and somebody else's. You know how sometimes you hear great music, and music is completely untranslatable into words, into any words. A certain tension that is born when one… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
I've had the good fortune to read a lot of great American writers in translation, and my absolute beloved, for me one of the greatest writers ever, is Mark Twain. Yes, yes, yes. And Whitman, from whom the whole of… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
I usually write for the individual reader -though I would like to have many such readers. There are some poets who write for people… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Out of every hundred people, those who always know better: fifty-two. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
I don't know the role I'm playing. I only know it's mine, non-convertible. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
This terrifying world is not devoid of charms, of the mornings that make waking up worthwhile. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
“Every beginning, after all, is nothing but a sequel, and the book of events is always open in the middle.” — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
All the best have something in common, a regard for reality, an agreement to its primacy over the imagination. Even the richest, most surprising… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
“Four billion people on this earth but my imagination is still the same. It's bad with large numbers. It's still taken by particularity. It… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Most of the earth's inhabitants work to get by. They work because they have to. They didn't pick this or that kind of job out of passion; the circumstances of their lives did the choosing for them. Loveless work, boring work, work valued only because others haven't got even that much, however loveless and boring - this is one of… — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share
God was finally going to believe in a man both good and strong, but good and strong are still two different men. — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
Carry on, then, if only for the moment that it takes a tiny galaxy to blink! — Wislawa Szymborska Copy Share Image
