All John Ashbery Quotes
- I like poems you can tack all over with a hammer and there are no hollow places. All
- And so we turn the page over. To think of starting. This is all there is. All
- I don't find any direct statements in life. My poetry imitates or reproduces the way knowledge or awareness come to me, which is by fits… Any
- Reading is a pleasure, but to finish reading, to come to the blank space at the end, is also a pleasure. Blank
- Much that is beautiful must be discarded So that we may resemble a taller Impression of ourselves. Beautiful
- There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army. Army
- The gray glaze of the past attacks all know-how.... All
- Will occur as time grows more open about it. Grows
- The soul establishes itself. But how far can it swim out through the eyes And still return safely to its nest? Establishes
- I write with experiences in mind, but I don't write about them, I write out of them. Experiences
- I'm heading for a clean-named place like Wisconsin, and mad as a jack-o'-lantern, will get there without help and nosy proclivities. Clean
- Where then shall hope and fear their objects find? Fear
- I feel that poetry is going on all the time inside, an underground stream. All
- I don't look on poetry as closed works. I feel they're going on all the time in my head and I occasionally snip off a… All
- The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be. Funny
- What I like about music is its ability to be convincing, to carry an argument through successfully to the finish, though the terms of the… Ability
- The term ignorant is indeed perhaps an overstatement, implying as it does that something is known somewhere, whereas in reality we are not even sure… Any
- In the increasingly convincing darkness The words become palpable, like a fruit That is too beautiful to eat. Beautiful
- Most reckless things are beautiful in some way, and recklessness is what makes experimental art beautiful, just as religions are beautiful because of the strong… Art
- Once you've lived in France, you don't want to live anywhere else, including France. Anywhere