John Ashbery Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• 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

  Dark, Light, Fog

  John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”, Penguin Group USA

  23 Copy quote

• And we may be led, then, upward through more
  Powerful forms of poetry, past columns
  With peeling posters on them, to the country of indifference.
  Meanwhile if the swell diapasons, blooms
  Unhappily and too soon, the little people are nonetheless real.

  John Ashbery

  Country, Art, Powerful

  John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”

  10 Copy quote

• A yak is a prehistoric cabbage; of that, we can be sure.

  John Ashbery

  Cabbage, Yaks, Prehistoric

  9 Copy quote

• Expecting rain, the profile of a day Wears its soul like a hat.

  John Ashbery

  Inspirational, Life, Rain

  John Ashbery (1981). “Shadow train: poems”, Viking Adult

  8 Copy quote

• It is because everything is relative
  That we shall never see in that sphere of pure wisdom and
  Entertainment much more than groping shadows of an incomplete
  Former existence so close it burns like the mouth that
  Closes down over all your effort like the moment
  Of death

  John Ashbery

  Death, Wisdom, Effort

  John Ashbery, Lee Harwood, Tom Raworth (1971). “John Ashbery, Lee Harwood, Tom Raworth”, Not Avail

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• I want a bedroom near the sky, an astrologer's cave
  Where I can fashion eclogues that are chaste and grave.

  John Ashbery

  Fashion, Sky, Astrology

  John Ashbery (1985). “A Wave: Poems”, p.7, Ardent Media

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• So I cradle this average violin that knows
  Only forgotten showtunes, but argues
  The possibility of free declamation anchored
  To a dull refrain.

  John Ashbery

  Music, Average, Dull

  John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”, Penguin Group USA

  21 Copy quote

• The first year was like icing. Then the cake started to show through.

  John Ashbery

  Years, Cake, Firsts

  John Ashbery (1985). “A Wave: Poems”, p.16, Ardent Media

  50 Copy quote

• The facts of history have been too well rehearsed.

  John Ashbery

  History, Facts, Wells

  John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”

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• In the increasingly convincing darkness The words become palpable, like a fruit That is too beautiful to eat.

  John Ashbery

  Beautiful, Darkness, Fruit

  "Scoundrel Time, a fantastic new journal created by Paula Whyman and Mikhail Iossel for resistence and education in the Age of Trump". Interview with Caroline Leavitt, www.goodreads.com. January 20, 2017.

  24 Copy quote

• I think that in the process of writing, all kinds of unexpected things happen that shift the poet away from his plan and that these accidents are really what we mean when we talk about poetry.

  John Ashbery

  Writing, Mean, Thinking

  21 Copy quote

• My feeling is that most political poetry is preaching to the choir, and that the people who are going to make the political changes in our lives are not the people who read poetry, unfortunately. Poetry not specifically aimed at political revolution, though, is beneficial in moving people toward that kind of action, as well as other kinds of action. A good poem makes me want to be active on as many fronts as possible.

  John Ashbery

  Moving, Political Revolution, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  25 Copy quote

• This whole moment is the groin
  Of a borborygmic giant who even now
  Is rolling over on us in his sleep.

  John Ashbery

  Inspirational, Life, Sleep

  John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”

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• I always thought that writing poetry was in itself a political act.

  John Ashbery

  Writing, Political, Writing Poetry

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

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• Not until it starts to stink does the inevitable happen.

  John Ashbery

  Events, Doe, Stink

  John Ashbery (1985). “A Wave: Poems”, p.73, Ardent Media

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• Alone with our madness and favorite flower
  We see that there really is nothing left to write about.
  Or rather, it is necessary to write about the same old things
  In the same way, repeating the same things over and over
  For love to continue and be gradually different.

  John Ashbery

  Love, Flower, Writing

  John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”, Penguin Group USA

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• Until, accustomed to disappointments, you can let yourself rule and be ruled by these strings or emanations that connect everything together, you haven't fully exorcised the demon of doubt that sets you in motion like a rocking horse that cannot stop rocking.

  John Ashbery

  Trust, Horse, Disappointment

  John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”, Penguin Group USA

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• One listens to a piece of great music, say, and feels deeply moved by it, and wants to put this feeling into words, but it can't be put into words. That's what - the music has already supplied the meaning, and words will just be superfluous after that. But it's that kind of verbal meaning that can't be verbalized that I try to get at in poetry.

  John Ashbery

  Feelings, Trying, Kind

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• We are prisoners of the world's demented sink.
  The soft enchantments of our years of innocence
  Are harvested by accredited experience
  Our fondest memories soon turn to poison
  And only oblivion remains in season.

  John Ashbery

  Life, Memories, Years

  John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”

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• The promise of learning is a delusion.... Tomorrow would alter the sense of what had already been learned, that the learning process is extended in this way, so that from this standpoint none of us ever graduates from college, for time is an emulsion, and probably thinking not to grow up is the brightest kind of maturity for us, right now at any rate.

  John Ashbery

  Growing Up, Maturity, College

  John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”, Penguin Group USA

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

  John Ashbery

  Poetry, Hammers, Hollow

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

  John Ashbery

  Inspirational, Life, Army

  1989 In the International Herald Tribune, 2 Oct.

  62 Copy quote

• Once you've lived in France, you don't want to live anywhere else, including France.

  John Ashbery

  Want, France, Including

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• I listen to music a great deal. In a way, it's trying to express things that can't be expressed in words. That's something that interests me, too. Even though I use words to express myself, I am trying to, it seems to me, get beyond that.

  John Ashbery

  Trying, Use, Way

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Life is not at all what you might think it to be
  A simple tale where each thing has its history
  It's much more than its scuffle and anything goes
  Both evil and good, subject to the same laws.

  John Ashbery

  Inspirational, Life, Thinking

  John Ashbery (1986). “Selected Poems”, Penguin Group USA

  13 Copy quote

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