I can pray better when I'm comfortable. Katherine Anne Porter More Quotes by Katherine Anne Porter More Quotes From Katherine Anne Porter Writing, in any sense that matters, cannot be taught. It can only be learned by each separate one of us in his own way, by the use of his own powers of imagination and perception, the ability to learn the lessons he has set for himself. Katherine Anne Porter perceptionimaginationwriting And yet, we know how fatal the pursuit of liveliness may be: it may result in ... tiresome acrobatics. ... Flashy effects distract the mind. They destroy their persuasiveness; you would not believe a man was very intent on ploughing a furrow if he carried a hoop with him and jumped through it at every other step. ... When virtuosity gets the upper hand of your theme, or is better than your idea, it is time to quit. Katherine Anne Porter menbelieveideas You do not create a style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being. Katherine Anne Porter style There seems to be a kind of order in the universe…in the movement of the stars and the turning of the Earth and the changing of the seasons. But human life is almost pure chaos. Everyone takes his stance, asserts his own right and feelings, mistaking the motives of others, and his own. Katherine Anne Porter starsfeelingsorder Death always leaves one singer to mourn. Katherine Anne Porter mournsingersdeath With the most infinite tenderness I have ever known in my life, he put his arms around me, gently, gently, and I embraced him around the neck, and we touched. Katherine Anne Porter necksarmsinfinite The human heart is not yet so corroded that it can read off the extinction of these two men without a shock to the very roots of its belief in justice and humanity. Katherine Anne Porter heartmentwo Eventually women will learn there's no such thing as freedom. Their husbands are just as fastened to the deck as they are. Men get onto a treadmill and never got off. Katherine Anne Porter freedomhusbandmen I have no patience with this dreadful idea that whatever you have in you has to come out, that you can't suppress true talent. People can be destroyed; they can be bent, distorted, and completely crippled. In spite of all the poetry, all the philosophy to the contrary, we are not really masters of our fate. Katherine Anne Porter fatephilosophyideas I think I've only spent about ten percent of my energies on writing. The other ninety percent went to keeping my head above water. Katherine Anne Porter writingwaterthinking But my belief is growing that our political and social evils are remediable, if only all of us who want a change for the better just get up and work for it, all the time, with as much knowledge and intelligence as we can muster for it. Half the wrongs of human life exist because of the inertia of people who simply will not use their energies in fighting for what they believe in. And finally the wrongs roll up into world catastrophes and millions of deaths and a terrible set-back for all mankind. Katherine Anne Porter fightingbelievepeople The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one's own. Katherine Anne Porter abuserealbeauty All the old houses that I knew when I was a child were full of books, bought generation after generation by members of the family. Nobody told you to read this or not to read that. Katherine Anne Porter housebookchildren In the arts, you simply cannot secure your bread and your freedom of action too. You cannot be a hostile critic of society and expect society to feed you regularly. Katherine Anne Porter breadactionart I'm not afraid of life and I'm not afraid of death: Dying's the bore. Katherine Anne Porter afraid-of-lifenot-afraiddying I look upon literature as an art, and I believe that if you misuse it or abuse it, it will leave you. It is not a thing that you can nail down and use as you want. You have to let it use you, too. Katherine Anne Porter abusebelieveart The greatest art comes out of warmth and conviction and deep feeling, but then, very few people, even geniuses, have all that. Katherine Anne Porter feelingspeopleart All working, practical political systems, even those professing to originate in moral grandeur, are based upon and operate by contempt of human life and the individual fate. Katherine Anne Porter fatepoliticspolitical I always write a story in one sitting. Katherine Anne Porter sittingstorieswriting No man can be explained by his personal history, least of all a poet. Katherine Anne Porter poetpersonal-historymen
