Jack Gilbert Quotes

29 quotes in 686 categories

• What we feel most has no name but amber, archers, cinnamon, horses and birds.
• We are surrounded by the absurd excess of the universe. By meaningless bulk, vastness without size, power without consequence. The stubborn iteration that is present…
• We think the fire eats the wood. We are wrong. The wood reaches out to the flame. The fire licks at what the wood harbors,…
• Being alive is so extraordinary I don’t know why people limit it to riches, pride, security—all of those things life is built on. People miss…
• Why do so manysettle for so little? I don't understand why they're not greedy for what's inside them.
• I like ornament at the right time, but I don't want a poem to be made out of decoration ... When I read the poems…
• I'm vain enough to think that I've made a successful life. I've had everything I've ever wanted. You can't beat that.
• Fame is a lot of fun, but it's not interesting. I loved being noticed and praised, even the banquets. But they didn't have anything that…
• I had lived all of my youthful dreams, but I couldn't think of many adult ones. I finally realized that we don't have many dreams…
• I would say Pittsburgh softly each time before throwing him up. Whisper Pittsburgh with my mouth against the tiny ear and throw him higher. Pittsburgh…
• Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods. Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt. But there’s music in us. Hope is pushed down…
• The woman is not just a pleasure, nor even a problem. She is a meniscus that allows the absolute to have a shape, that lets…
• It is convenient for the old men to blame Eve. To insist we are damned because a country girl talked to the snake one afternoon…
• Everyone forgets Icarus also flew.
• I believe that Icarus was not failing as he fell, but just coming to the end of his triumph.
• Are the angels of her bed the angels who come near me alone in mine? Are the green trees in her window the color is…
• We exist with a wind whispering inside and our moon flexing. Amid the ducts, inside the basilica of bones.
• The heart lies to itself because it must.
• Duende I can't remember her name. It's not as though I've been in bed with that many women. The truth is I can't even remember…
• But anything worth doing is worth doing badly. Like being there by that summer ocean on the other side of the island while love was…

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