Quotes of John Ashbery - somelinesforyou

“ How many people came and stayed a certain time, Uttered light or dark speech that became part of you Like light behind windblown fog and sand Filtered and influenced by it, until no part Remains that is surely you. ”

- John Ashbery

“ The first year was like icing. Then the cake started to show through … ”

- John Ashbery

“ I'm heading for a cleannamed place like Wisconsin, and mad as a jacko'lantern, will get there without help and nosy proclivities. ”

- John Ashbery

“ Things can harden meaningfully in the moment of indecision ”

- John Ashbery

“ Its a bit mad. Too bad, I mean, that getting to know each just for a fleeting second Must be replaced by unperfect knowledge of the featureless whole Like some pocket history of the world, so general As to constitute a sob or wail ”

- John Ashbery

“ There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army. ”

- John Ashbery

“ 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 length. ”

- John Ashbery

“ In the increasingly convincing darknessThe words become palpable, like a fruitThat is too beautiful to eat. ”

- John Ashbery

“ In the increasingly convincing darknessThe words become palpable, like a fruitThat is too beautiful to eat. ”

- John Ashbery

“ There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army. ”

- John Ashbery

“ Paris is "the city," isn't it, and I am a lover of cities. It can be experienced much more pleasantly and conveniently than any other city I know. It's so easy to get around on the metro, and so interesting when you get there — each arrondissement is like a separate province, with its own capital and customs and even costumes. ”

- John Ashbery

“ In the increasingly convincing darknessThe words become palpable, like a fruitThat is too beautiful to eat. ”

- John Ashbery

“ The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be. ”

- John Ashbery

“ The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be. ”

- John Ashbery

“ The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be. ”

- John Ashbery

“ Heh? Eh? Our youth is dead.From the minute we discover it with eyes closedAdvancing into mountain light.Ouch. ”

- John Ashbery

“ In the increasingly convincing darknessThe words become palpable, like a fruitThat is too beautiful to eat. ”

- John Ashbery

“ We might realize that the present moment may be one of an eternal or sempiternal series of moments, all of which will resemble it because, in some ways, they are the present, and won't in other ways, because the present will be the past by that time. ”

- John Ashbery

“ The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be. ”

- John Ashbery

“ I like poems you can tack all over with a hammer and there are no hollow places. ”

- John Ashbery

“ There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army. ”

- John Ashbery

“ I was doubly thrilled. Because had been my favorite poet ever since I first read him at the age of, I guess, 16. Because he was the first modern poet I felt I could understand and empathize with. So, coming from him, it was even more rewarding. ”

- John Ashbery

“ After you've lived in Paris for a while, you don't want to live anywhere, including Paris. ”

- John Ashbery

“ After you've lived in Paris for a while, you don't want to live anywhere, including Paris. ”

- John Ashbery

“ What is the past, what is it all for? A mental sandwich? ”

- John Ashbery

“ Heh? Eh? Our youth is dead.From the minute we discover it with eyes closedAdvancing into mountain light.Ouch. ”

- John Ashbery

“ The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be. ”

- John Ashbery

“ All things seem mention of themselvesAnd the names which stem from them branch out to other referents.Hugely, spring exists again. ”

- John Ashbery

“ Heh? Eh? Our youth is dead.From the minute we discover it with eyes closedAdvancing into mountain light.Ouch. ”

- John Ashbery

“ There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army. ”

- John Ashbery
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