Kim Hyesoon

I did not have any role model. I could not learn anything from the female voice that male poets used, a voice…

— Kim Hyesoon

My mom does not exist anymore, and I cannot see my mother in myself. To me, the word "mother" is the synonym…

— Kim Hyesoon

Mother does not exist, like water that has given life to a flower and then disappeared. Mothers live somewhere after giving birth…

— Kim Hyesoon

Living in South Korea as a girl meant living under a lot of discrimination and limitation. It was the same in my…

— Kim Hyesoon

In poetry, rhythm is a priority above everything else.

— Kim Hyesoon

I came to grotesque language in the patriarchal culture under the dictatorship. The body that was broken into pieces is a sick…

— Kim Hyesoon

As a university student, I tried hard to write poems in Korean. It was at that time that I foresaw my death…

— Kim Hyesoon

If someone asks, Is anyone alive? Break, your, head, open, and, show, your, ten, ta, cle.

— Kim Hyesoon

When I was at university, the policemen used to measure how short the women's mini-skirts were and how long guys' hair was.…

— Kim Hyesoon

I am a tomb robber who is robbing my own tomb. Things from my tomb are exhibited under the radiant sun. Every…

— Kim Hyesoon

My tough and grotesque images were thrown on the roads and were stepped on by my critics, and I was talked about…

— Kim Hyesoon

Poems are ways of saying you clearly remember the day of your death and your tomb. When I am writing poetry, I…

— Kim Hyesoon

If you happen to live in Korea, you might always suffer from anger towards people in power, because of political and social…

— Kim Hyesoon

We carve on our body what society teaches us and continue this task, not knowing the identity they force us to have.…

— Kim Hyesoon

The rhythm of my body is the same as my mother tongue. It is in this rhythm where I find sanctity, that…

— Kim Hyesoon

Women in Korean myths disappear after giving birth. The reason they were born is to produce sons.

— Kim Hyesoon

As a sick kid, I always looked out the window. The objects of my observation were the sun, the seasons, the wind,…

— Kim Hyesoon

When I first started to write poetry, I used to feel as if my tongue would go numb.

— Kim Hyesoon

If you propose there is a feminism problem in Korea, somebody would point out that you are bringing up antiquated issues. No…

— Kim Hyesoon

My body is full of graves. A sepulcher is dug up, and a young girl comes out of it with her dusty…

— Kim Hyesoon

Since the boundary of the world of poetry is fluid, the language in it is also fluid. Hence, the language that is…

— Kim Hyesoon

If you happen to live in Korea, you might always suffer from anger towards people in power, because of political and social…

— Kim Hyesoon

It seems Korean women are enjoying a passive and fragile status, intoxicated by appearance. Not only feminism, but any serious discourse ends…

— Kim Hyesoon

The language of poetry is not stuck in place. Nothing can own language. I think, however, the genre of poetry itself is…

— Kim Hyesoon

I have to reach "the poetry condition" to write. Then it is as if the border around me is thinned or blurred…

— Kim Hyesoon