W. S. Merwin Quotes
Modern poetry, for me, began not in English at all but in Spanish, in the poems of Lorca.
Quotes to Explore
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So people think I'm lying about my age all the time? It's the records that are wrong. I've never told anyone how old I am. The minute they ask me, I say 'That's none of your business.' So that means I've never once lied about my age. Now that's true!
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I was too much of an innocent when I went to university.
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There is this sense of David Cameron leading a Government that's badly out of touch with ordinary people's lives. I'd absolutely welcome the opportunity to show all political leaders what life is like for most people.
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I started wearing all black around the time I got into Nirvana. I first heard 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' when I was about 12, and I remember jumping on my bed, so excited about it.
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The perfection of art is to conceal art.
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I've always loved writing, and the impulse for me is storytelling. I don't sit down and think: 'What political message can I sell?' I love the creativity of it.
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I didn't want to settle or become complacent after winning a major, I wanted to stay hungry. It's easy to do. It's easy to win a big tournament and kind of get a little lazy, so it's been a good motivator for me to work a little harder.
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So they all went away from the little log house. The shutters were over the windows, so the little house could not see them go. It stayed there inside the log fence, behind the two big oak trees that in the summertime had made green roofs for Mary and Laura to play under.
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For me, one of the privileges of being a writer is to poke your nose around and learn about worlds you don't know.
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A cruel story runs on wheels, and every hand oils the wheels as they run.
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One cannot plan for the unexpected.
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The older I get, the more I embrace who I am.
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A lot of times on tour it's about, 'OK, where am I today? Wow, I'm in Costa Rica. What is their famous dish?' And it's about trying the food, and really experiencing it.
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There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.
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I don't think I was born beautiful. I just think I was born me.
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We're so busy broadcasting our latest cultural disdain that we scantly notice anything we enjoy. 'Oh man, this Rebecca Black kid is terrible! Let's laugh at her!' has become more culturally relevant than, 'I really love this new Bilal record.'
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I'd rather go to a flea market than just about anything. It's the process I like - the same with getting dressed. If I've got someplace to be, I'll spend more time getting dressed than I spent at the actual event. Sometimes. Even in my own closet, I love to dig and search and find.
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Kids in urban and rural areas face so many challenges, and they show up at schools that don't have the extra capacity or extra resources to meet their needs.
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Most of the big money people don't know what would interest an audience if you did it. They only know what interested the audience last time.
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Business, after all, is nothing more than a bunch of human relationships.
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I'm moved by people who see the world differently than others. People who see the world with a longing for its poetry often can be broken people.
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I don't think poetry has a readership anywhere, really, that's that big.
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When we were kids, my favorite thing was coming to upstate New York where my family is from and hanging out with my grandparents' friends pre-Internet and them asking if we had stores or 'Do you have TV in Alaska?'
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Modern poetry, for me, began not in English at all but in Spanish, in the poems of Lorca.
