Charles Simic Quotes

Quotes about:

• The secret wish of poetry is to stop time.

  Charles Simic

  Secret, Wish, Poetry Is

  Charles Simic (2015). “The Life of Images: Selected Prose”, p.21, Harper Collins

  27 Copy quote

• He who cannot howl will not find his pack.

  Charles Simic

  Howl, Packs

  Charles Simic (1990). “Selected Poems, 1963-1983”, George Braziller

  32 Copy quote

• The highest levels of consciousness are wordless.

  Charles Simic

  Levels, Consciousness, Highest

  Charles Simic (2008). “The Monster Loves His Labyrinth: Notebooks”, Copper Canyon Press

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• The world is beautiful but not sayable. That's why we need art.

  Charles Simic

  Beautiful, Art, Needs

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• Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

  Charles Simic

  Poetry, Silence, Never Quit

  Charles Simic (1985). “The Uncertain Certainty: Interviews, Essays, and Notes on Poetry”

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• Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all others were making ships.

  Charles Simic

  Perspective, Ships, Bottles

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• The plain truth is we are going to die. Here I am, a teeny spec surrounded by boundless space and time, arguing with the whole of creation, shaking my fist, sputtering, growing even eloquent at times, and then-poof! I am gone. Swept off once and for all. I think that is very, very funny.

  Charles Simic

  Thinking, Here I Am, Space

  24 Copy quote

• When people ask me how to find happiness in life I tell them, First learn how to cook.

  Charles Simic

  People, Finding Happiness, Firsts

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• If I believe in anything, it is in the dark night of the soul. Awe is my religion, and mystery is its church.

  Charles Simic

  Believe, Dark, Night

  Charles Simic (1997). “Orphan Factory: Essays and Memoirs”

  23 Copy quote

• Poetry: three mismatched shoes at the entrance of a dark alley.

  Charles Simic

  Dark, Shoes, Three

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• The religion of the short poem, in every age and in every literature, has a single commandment: Less is always more. The short poem rejects preamble and summary. It's about all and everything, the metaphysics of a few words surrounded by much silence. …The short poem is a match flaring up in a dark universe.

  Charles Simic

  Dark, Silence, Age

  15 Copy quote

• One writes because one has been touched by the yearning for and the despair of ever touching the Other.

  Charles Simic

  Writing, Touching, Despair

  Charles Simic (2013). “The Monster Loves His Labyrinth”, p.67, Copper Canyon Press

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• The poem I want to write is impossible. A stone that floats.

  Charles Simic

  Writing, Want, Stones

  Charles Simic (2013). “The Monster Loves His Labyrinth”, p.41, Copper Canyon Press

  4 Copy quote

• Insomnia is an all-night travel agency with posters advertising faraway places.

  Charles Simic

  Night, Insomnia, Agency

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• I slept little, read a lot, and fell in love frequently.

  Charles Simic

  Littles

  19 Copy quote

• Silence is the only language god speaks.

  Charles Simic

  Silence, Language, Speak

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• Only poetry can measure the distance between ourselves and the Other.

  Charles Simic

  Distance

  Charles Simic (2013). “The Monster Loves His Labyrinth”, p.67, Copper Canyon Press

  4 Copy quote

• Here in the United States, we speak with reverence of authentic experience. We write poems about our daddies taking us fishing and breaking our hearts by making us throw the little fish back into the river. We even tell the reader the kind of car we were driving, the year and the model, to give the impression that it’s all true. It’s because we think of ourselves as journalists of a kind. Like them, we’ll go anywhere for a story. Don’t believe a word of it. As any poet can tell you, one often sees better with eyes closed than with eyes wide open.

  Charles Simic

  Believe, Eye, Writing

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• I do believe that a poem needs to remind the reader of his or her own humanity, of what they are, of what they're capable of. Awaken them, in a sense, to the fact that there's a world in front of their eyes, that they have a body, they're going to die, the sky is beautiful, it's fun to be in a grassy field when the sun is shining—those kinds of things.

  Charles Simic

  Beautiful, Fun, Believe

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• A poem is an invitation to a voyage. As in life, we travel to see fresh sights.

  Charles Simic

  Sight, Voyages, Invitations

  Charles Simic (2013). “The Monster Loves His Labyrinth”, p.74, Copper Canyon Press

  19 Copy quote

• We name one thing and then another. That’s how time enters poetry. Space, on the other hand, comes into being through the attention we pay to each word. The more intense our attention, the more space, and there’s a lot of space inside words.

  Charles Simic

  Hands, Names, Space

  Charles Simic (2013). “The Monster Loves His Labyrinth”, p.40, Copper Canyon Press

  18 Copy quote

• The truth is dark under your eyelids.

  Charles Simic

  Truth, Dark, Truth Is

  Charles Simic (2013). “New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012”, p.216, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  17 Copy quote

• When you play chess alone it's always your move.

  Charles Simic

  Moving, Play, Chess

  Charles Simic (2000). “Jackstraws”, p.61, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I was already dozing off in the shade, dreaming that the rustling trees were my many selves explaining themselves all at the same time so that I could not make out a single word. My life was a beautiful mystery on the verge of understanding, always on the verge! Think of it!

  Charles Simic

  Beautiful, Dream, Thinking

  Charles Simic (2013). “New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012”, p.117, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  12 Copy quote

• The stars know everything, So we try to read their minds. As distant as they are, We choose to whisper in their presence.

  Charles Simic

  Stars, Mind, Trying

  Charles Simic (2013). “New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012”, p.328, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

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