Art Quote by W. S. Merwin

“Any work of art makes one very simple demand on anyone who genuinely wants to get in touch with it. And that is to stop. You've got to stop what you're doing, what you're thinking, and what you're expecting and just be there for the poem for however long it takes.” quote by W. S. Merwin — Download Open image

“Any work of art makes one very simple demand on anyone who genuinely wants to get in touch with it. And that is to stop. You've got to stop what you're doing, what you're thinking, and what you're expecting and just be there for the poem for however long it takes.”

W. S. Merwin

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When a poem is really finished, you can't change anything. You can't move words around. You can't say, 'In other words, you mean.' No,…

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We are not born to survive. Only to live.

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What you remember saves you.

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I also think that life itself is both indifferent to us and the source of all of our joys and everything that we love.…

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I think it's good for anybody to learn languages. Americans are particularly limited in that way. Europeans less so... We're beginning to have Spanish move in on English in the states because of all the people coming from Hispanic countries... and we're beginning to learn some Spanish. And I think that's a good thing... Only having one language is very…

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You have to be rather relentless about pushing other things out of the way. This activity of writing, which has no promises attached to…

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Laughter was the shape the darkness took around the first appearance of the light.

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In a sense, much that is learned is bound to be bad habits. You're always beginning again.

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I go five steps in the garden, and I immediately lose track of time... it is a kind of joy in being alive in…

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What I really believe is the only hopeful relation between our life and the whole of life is one of reverence and respect and…

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As soon as I could write with a little pencil, I was writing these little hymns and illustrating them, and I thought they should…

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Explore all 64 W. S. Merwin quotes

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