John Berryman Quotes

• Bats have no bankers and they do not drink and cannot be arrested and pay no tax and, in general, bats have it made.

  John Berryman

  Funny, Song, Drinking

  1964 'Dream Song No.63'.

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• We must travel in the direction of our fear.

  John Berryman

  Inspirational, Motivational, Running

  "A Point of Age" l. 42 (1948)

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• The artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business.

  John Berryman

  Art, Lucky, Worst

  1972 Interview in The Paris Review, winter issue.

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• You should always be trying to write a poem you are unable to write, a poem you lack the technique, the language, the courage to achieve. Otherwise you're merely imitating yourself, going nowhere, because that's always easiest.

  John Berryman

  Writing, Trying, Technique

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• So if I were talking to a young writer, I would recommend the cultivation of extreme indifference to both praise and blame because praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.

  John Berryman

  Vanity, Self, Talking

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• I can offer you only: this world like a knife

  John Berryman

  Knives, World, Offers

  John Berryman (2014). “The Heart Is Strange: New Selected Poems”, p.76, Macmillan

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• Two daiquiris withdrew into a corner of a gorgeous room and one told the other a lie.

  John Berryman

  Lying, Two, Rooms

  John Berryman (2014). “The Dream Songs: Poems”, p.18, Macmillan

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• This world is gradually becoming a place Where I do not care to be any more.

  John Berryman

  World, Care, Becoming

  John Berryman (2014). “The Dream Songs: Poems”, p.168, Macmillan

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• I do strongly feel that among the greatest pieces of luck for high achievement is ordeal. Certain great artists can make out without it, Titian and others, but mostly you need ordeal. My idea is this: the artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business: Beethoven's deafness, Goya's deafness, Milton's blindness, that kind of thing.

  John Berryman

  Artist, Ideas, Achievement

  "EM Forster's work tailed off once he finally had sex. Better that than a life of despair" by Sam Leith, www.theguardian.com. June 13, 2010.

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• Ever to confess you're bored
  means you have no
  Inner Resources.

  John Berryman

  Mean, Bored, Resources

  77 Dream Songs (1964) no. 14

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• I am so wise I had my mouth sewn shut.

  John Berryman

  Life, Wise, Mouths

  John Berryman (2014). “The Dream Songs: Poems”, p.24, Macmillan

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• That is our ‘pointed task. Love & die.

  John Berryman

  Tasks, Dies

  John Berryman (2014). “77 Dream Songs: Poems”, p.40, Macmillan

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• These Songs are not meant to be understood, you understand. They are only meant to terrify & comfort.

  John Berryman

  Song, Comfort, Understood

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• Praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.

  John Berryman

  Vanity, Self, Blame

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• One must be ruthless with one's own writing or someone else will be.

  John Berryman

  Writing, Ruthless

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• We are using our own skins for wallpaper and we cannot win.

  John Berryman

  Winning, Skins, Chaos

  John Berryman (2014). “77 Dream Songs: Poems”, p.60, Macmillan

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• Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so. After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns, we ourselves flash and yearn, and moreover my mother told me as a boy (repeatedly) 'Ever to confess you're bored means you have no inner Resources.' I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored.

  John Berryman

  Mother, Mean, Boys

  John Berryman, “Dream Song 14: Life, Friends, Is Boring”

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• something has been said for sobriety but very little.

  John Berryman

  Beer, Sobriety, Littles

  John Berryman (2014). “77 Dream Songs: Poems”, p.64, Macmillan

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• I didn't want to be like Yeats; I wanted to be Yeats.

  John Berryman

  Writing, Want, Yeats

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• I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored. Peoples bore me, literature bores me, especially great literature.

  John Berryman

  Bored, Literature, Resources

  John Berryman (2014). “77 Dream Songs: Poems”, p.16, Macmillan

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• Offering Dragons quarter is no good, they regrow all their parts and come on again. They have to be killed.

  John Berryman

  Funny, Clever, Smart

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• We have reason to be afraid. This is a terrible place.

  John Berryman

  Reason, Terrible

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• There is no such thing as Freedom (though it is the most important condition of human life, after Humility, -which does not exist either). There is only Slavery (walls around one) and absence-of-Slavery (ability to walk in any direction, or to remain still).

  John Berryman

  Wall, Humility, Important

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• Them lady poets must not marry, pal.

  John Berryman

  Pals, Poet

  John Berryman (2014). “His Toy, His Dream, His Rest”, p.187, Macmillan

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• Wishin' was dyin' but I gotta make it all this way to that bed on these feet.

  John Berryman

  Feet, Bed, Way

  John Berryman (2014). “The Dream Songs: Poems”, p.44, Macmillan

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