Charles Simic Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

Art Literature Silence Writing

Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.

Charles Simic

Firefighter, Poetry, Enough

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

10 Copy quote
Poems are other people's snapshots in which we see our own lives.

Charles Simic

People, Snapshots

15 Copy quote
If the sky falls they shall have clouds for supper.

Charles Simic

Fall, Clouds, Sky

Charles Simic (2013). “New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012”, p.18, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

6 Copy quote
For Emily Dickinson every philosophical idea was a potential lover. Metaphysics is the realm of eternal seduction of the spirit by ideas.

Charles Simic

Philosophical, Ideas, Seduction

Charles Simic (2013). “The Monster Loves His Labyrinth”, p.70, Copper Canyon Press

15 Copy quote
Making art in America is about saving one's soul.

Charles Simic

Art, America, Soul

14 Copy quote
The ambition of much of today's literary theory seems to be to find ways to read literature without imagination.

Charles Simic

Ambition, Literary Theory, Imagination

Charles Simic (2013). “The Monster Loves His Labyrinth”, p.63, Copper Canyon Press

6 Copy quote
I'm not a stickler for truth. To me, lying in poetry is much more fun. I'm against lying in life, in principle, in any other activity except poetry.

Charles Simic

Fun, Lying, Principles

14 Copy quote
Found objects, chance creations, ready-mades (mass-produced items promoted into art objects, such as Duchamp's "Fountain"-urinal as sculpture) abolish the separation between art and life. The commonplace is miraculous if rightly seen.

Charles Simic

Art, Found Objects, Sculpture

8 Copy quote
The stone is a mirror which works poorly. Nothing in it but dimness. Your dimness or its dimness, who's to say? In the hush your heart sounds like a black cricket.

Charles Simic

Heart, Mirrors, Black

Charles Simic (2013). “New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012”, p.114, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

4 Copy quote
Roberto Calasso's survey of the renewed interest in myth demonstrates how decisive the gods' influence was on modern literature. Calasso is not only immensely learned; he is one of the most original thinkers and writers we have today.

Charles Simic

Today, Literature, Influence

4 Copy quote
I left parts of myself everywhere, The way absent-minded people leave Gloves and umbrellas Whose colors are sad from dispensing so much bad luck

Charles Simic

Color, People, Luck

Charles Simic (2013). “New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012”, p.123, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

5 Copy quote
A 'truth' detached and purified of pleasures of ordinary life is not worth a damn in my view. Every grand theory and noble sentiment ought to be first tested in the kitchen-and then in bed, of course.

Charles Simic

Views, Kitchen, Bed

4 Copy quote
There are people who live inside their heads and their intellects. It's something one is born with and stuck with. It's not something you make a decision about.

Charles Simic

People, Decision, Born

4 Copy quote
A poem is an instant of lucidity in which
the entire organism participates.

Charles Simic

Instant, Lucidity, Organisms

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

4 Copy quote
To submit to chance is to reveal the self and its obsessions.

Charles Simic

Self, Chance, Obsession

"Dime-store Alchemy: The Art of Joseph Cornell". Book by Charles Simic, therumpus.net. 1992.

4 Copy quote
Words make love on the page like flies in the summer heat and the poet is only the bemused spectator.

Charles Simic

Summer, Making Love, Pages

Charles Simic (2015). “The Life of Images: Selected Prose”, p.22, Harper Collins

4 Copy quote
Poetry is an orphan of silence.

Charles Simic

Silence, Orphan, Poetry Is

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

9 Copy quote
Here is something we can all count on. Sooner or later our tribe always comes to ask us to agree to murder.

Charles Simic

Tribes, Murder, Agree

6 Copy quote
In their effort to divorce language and experience, deconstructionist critics remind me of middle-class parents who do not allow their children to play in the street.

Charles Simic

Children, Divorce, Class

4 Copy quote
There’s no preparation for poetry.

Charles Simic

Preparation

4 Copy quote
There are knives that glitter like altars
In a dark church
Where they bring the cripple and the imbecile
To be healed.

There's a woden block where bones are broken,
Scraped clean--a river dried to its bed

Charles Simic

Block, Dark, Knives

4 Copy quote
Only brooms
Know the devil
Still exists,

That the snow grows whiter
After a crow has flown over it

Charles Simic

Snow, Evil, Crow

Charles Simic (2013). “New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012”, p.24, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

13 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Kay Ryan

Yusef Komunyakaa

Charles Simic

Follow

Born: May 9, 1938
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics