And so we turn the page over. To think of starting. This is all there is. John Ashbery More Quotes by John Ashbery More Quotes From John Ashbery 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 writingmeanthinking Not until it starts to stink does the inevitable happen. John Ashbery stinkeventsdoe In the evening John Ashbery eveningschedulesifs I feel that poetry is going on all the time inside, an underground stream. John Ashbery streamshealingfeels Once you've lived in France, you don't want to live anywhere else, including France. John Ashbery includingfrancewant This whole moment is the groin John Ashbery sleepinspirationallife I always thought that writing poetry was in itself a political act. John Ashbery writing-poetrypoliticalwriting All beauty, resonance, integrity, John Ashbery integrityinspirationallife There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army. John Ashbery armyinspirationallife The soul is not a soul, John Ashbery soulsecretlife Life is not at all what you might think it to be John Ashbery inspirationallifethinking I don't want to read what is going to slide down easily; there has to be some crunch, a certain amount of resilience. John Ashbery resilienceslideswant And we may be led, then, upward through more John Ashbery powerfulcountryart What I like about music is its ability to be convincing, to carry an argument through successfully to the finish, though the terms of the argument remain unknown quantities. John Ashbery argumentabilitymusic The facts of history have been too well rehearsed. John Ashbery wellshistoryfacts 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 kindfeelingstrying But always and sometimes questioning the old modes John Ashbery demandgrowing-uplife I would like to please the reader, and I think that surprise has to be an element of this, and that may necessitate a certain amount of teasing. To shock the reader is something else again. That has to be handled with great care if you're not going to alienate and hurt him, and I'm firmly against that, just as I disapprove of people who dress with that in mind - dye their hair blue and stick safety pins through their noses and so on. John Ashbery hurthairthinking A yak is a prehistoric cabbage; of that, we can be sure. John Ashbery yaksprehistoriccabbage The evening light was like honey in the trees When you left me and walked to the end of the street Where the sunset abruptly ended. The wedding-cake drawbridge lowered itself To the fragile forget-me-not flower. You climbed aboard. Burnt horizons suddenly paved with golden stones, Dreams I had, including suicide, Puff out the hot-air balloon now. It is bursting, it is about to burst John Ashbery flowersuicidedream
