Quotes About Expression

The life of a poet lies not merely in the finite language-dance of expression but in the nearly infinite combinations of perception and memory combined with the sensitivity to what is perceived and remembered.

No one wants to pay for a look at another person's angst.

After ten standard months I was done, acknowledging the ancient aphorism to the effect that no book or poem is ever finished, merely abandoned.

The life of a poet lies not merely in the finite language-dance of expression but in the nearly infinite combinations of perception and memory combined with the sensitivity to what is perceived and remembered. My three local years on Heaven's Gate, almost fifteen hundred standard days, allowed me to see, to feel, to hear ? to remember, as if I literally had been born again. Little matter that I had been born again in hell.

I love being a poet. It's the goddamned words I can't stand.

For those who do not write and who never have been stirred by the creative urge, talk of muses seems a figure of speech, a quaint conceit, but for those of us who live by the Word, our muses are as real and necessary as the soft clay of language which they help to sculpt.

Later, dictating the tale into his comlog, the Consul remembered it as a seamless whole, minus the pauses, hoarse voice, false starts, and small redundancies which were the timeless failings of human speech

The right hemisphere was not without some language—but only the most emotionally charged units of communication could lodge in that affective hemisphere; my vocabulary was now down to nine words. (This, I learned later, was exceptional, many victims of CVAs retain only two or three.) For the record, here is my entire vocabulary of manageable words: fuck, shit, piss, cunt, goddamn, motherfucker, asshole, peepee, and poopoo;

Francis Bacon once said, "There arises from a bad and unapt formation of words a wonderful obstruction to the mind.

Was I a swordsman then? sends Johnny. Or a poet? [Yes There is never one without the other]

Words are the supreme objects. They are minded things.

the difference between finding the right word as opposed to accepting the almost right word was the difference between being struck by lightning and merely watching a lightning display.

I discovered that the difference between finding the right word as opposed to accepting the almost right word was the difference between being struck by lightning and merely watching a lightning display.

Poetry is only secondarily about words. Primarily, it is about truth.

Words are the only bullets in truth's bandolier. And poets are the snipers.

Have you always used a pen?" "No," I said, "only when I want to write something worth reading.

For the record, here is my entire vocabulary of manageable words: fuck, shit, piss, cunt, goddamn, motherfucker, asshole, peepee, and poopoo.

said the bald little androgyny.

Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.

Doing a life study while drunk and in the process of being seduced is never a formula for quality art.

During those long months of beginning my Cantos on Heaven's Gate, I discovered that the difference between finding the right word as opposed to accepting the almost right word was the difference between being struck by lightning and merely watching a lightning display.

no book or poem is ever finished, merely abandoned.

The sculptor Pete Garcia is found in his studio Ã¢â'¬Â¦ and in his bedroom Ã¢â'¬Â¦ and in the yard beyond.

are the only bullets in truth's bandolier. And poets are the snipers.