All John Ciardi Quotes
- Within a single scene, it seems to be unwise to have access to the inner reflections of more than one character. The reader generally needs… Access
- To read a poem with no thought in mind but to paraphrase it into a single, simple and usually high-minded prose statement is the destruction… Destruction
- A neighborhood is a residential area that is changing for the worse. Area
- Every game ever invented by mankind, is a way of making things hard for the fun of it! Ever Invented
- Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone. Ancestor
- Spontaneous is what you get after the seventeenth draft. Draft
- If a man means his writing seriously, he must mean to write well. But how can he write well until he learns to see what… Bad
- Men marry what they need. I marry you. Inspirational
- There's nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation. Drinking
- What has any poet to trust more than the feel of the thing? Theory concerns him only until he picks up his pen, and it… Any
- Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity. Identity
- The success of the poem is determined not by how much the poet felt in writing it, but by how much the reader feels in… Determined
- Boys are the cash of war. Boys
- The reader deserves an honest opinion. If he doesn't deserve it, give it to him anyhow. Deserve
- Who could believe an ant in theory? A giraffe in blueprint? Ten thousand doctors of what's possible Could reason half the jungle out of being. Animal
- Conviction is possible only in a world more primitive than ours can be perceived to be. A man can achieve a simply gnomic conviction only… Achieve
- The public library is the most dangerous place in town Dangerous
- I'm smiled out, talked out, quipped out, socialized so far from any being, I need the weight of mortal silences to get realized back into… Any
- I have one head that wants to be good, And one that wants to be bad. And always, as soon as I get up, One… Bad
- Early to bed and early to rise probably indicates unskilled labor. Bed