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Portrait of Richard Siken

Richard Siken

(1967) Poet United States

115 quotes in 467 categories

Richard Siken is a poet from the United States, best known for Crush.

Quick Facts About Richard Siken

Born: February 15, 1967
Nationality: United States
Profession: Poet
Notable works: Crush

About Richard Siken

Richard Siken is an American poet, painter, and filmmaker. His first poetry collection, Crush (2005), was selected by Louise Glück as the winner of the 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition and went on to win a Lambda Literary Award and a Thom Gunn Award. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Awards & Honors

Lambda Literary Award

Quotes by Richard Siken · Page 3

“Someone once told me that explaining is an admission of failure. I'm sure you remember, I was on the phone with you,…

Failure

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Oh, the things we invent when we are scared and want to be rescued.

Scared

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I woke up in the morning and I didn’t want anything, didn’t do anything, couldn’t do it anyway, just lay there listening…

Blood

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We have not touched the stars, nor are we forgiven...

Astronomy

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I’ve been rereading your story. I think it’s about me in a way that might not be flattering, but that’s okay. We…

Bluster

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“I am the wind and the wind is invisible, all the leaves tremble but I am invisible, blackbird over the dark field…

Dark

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“I will come back from the dead for you.”

Dead

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“You wanted to think of yourself as someone who did these kinds of things. You wanted to be in love and he…

Love

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We laugh & it pits the world against us.

Laughing

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“You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and he won’t tell you that he loves you, but he loves you.”

Beauty

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I'm battling monsters, I'm pulling you out of the burning buildings/ and you say I'll give you anything but you never come…

Building

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“I had a dream about you. We were in the gold room where everyone finally gets what they want. You said Tell…

Dreams

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“The hunter sinks his arrows into the trees and then paints the targets around them. The trees imagine they are deer. The…

Goals

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“The blond boy in the red trunks is holding your head underwater because he is trying to kill you, and you deserve…

Ready to die

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Love always wakes the dragon and suddenly flames everywhere.

Dragons

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The light is no mystery, the mystery is that there is something to keep the light from passing through.

Light

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I’m saying your name in the grocery store, I’m saying your name on the bridge at dawn. Your name like an animal…

Animal

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I wanted to be wanted and he was very beautiful, kissed with his eyes closed, and only felt good while moving. You…

Beautiful

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Vanity, in a fairy tale, will make you evil. Vanity in the real world will drive you nuts. Vanity makes you say…

Better life

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“You can sleep now, you said. You can sleep now. You said that. I had a dream where you said that. Thanks…

Dreams

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Eventually something you love is going to be taken away. And then you will fall to the floor crying. And then, however…

Cry

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“and this is the map of my heart, the landscape after cruelty which is, of course, a garden, which is a tenderness,…

Gardening

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“What can you know about a person? They shift in the light. You can’t light up all sides at once. Add a…

Darkness

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“Tonight you’re thinking of cities under crowns of snow and I stare at you like I’m looking through a window, counting birds.”

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Eventually something you love is going to be taken away. And then you will fall to the floor crying. And then, however…

Cry

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Richard Siken by topic

Love (20) Dreams (9) Body (9) Poetry (8)