Most works of art are, necessarily, bad...; one suffers through the many for the few. Randall Jarrell More Quotes by Randall Jarrell More Quotes From Randall Jarrell our quarrels with the world are like our quarrels with God: no matter how right we are, we are wrong. Randall Jarrell quarrelsmatterworld I decided that Europeans and Americans are like men and women: they understand each other worse, and it matters less, than either of them suppose. Randall Jarrell men-and-womenmattermen If we meet an honest and intelligent politician, a dozen, a hundred, we say they aren't like politicians at all, and our category of politicians stays unchanged; we know what politicians are like. Randall Jarrell dozenhonestintelligent I think Miss Moore was right to cut "The Steeple-Jack" - the poem seems plainer and clearer in its shortened state but she has cut too much... The reader may feel like saying, "Let her do as she pleases with the poem; it's hers, isn't it?" No; it's much too good a poem for that, it long ago became everybody's, and we can protest just as we could if Donatello cut off David's left leg. Randall Jarrell long-agocuttingthinking From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, Randall Jarrell motherdreamsleep To Americans, English manners are far more frightening than none at all. Randall Jarrell frighteningscarymanners Say what you like, but such things do happen - not often, but they do happen. Randall Jarrell happens Doesn't the world need the painter's praise anymore? Randall Jarrell praiseworldneeds Age could not wither nor custom stale her infinite monotony: in fact, neither Age nor Custom could do anything (as they said, their voices rising) with the American novelist Gertrude Johnson. Randall Jarrell novelistsvoiceage Many poets write as if they had been decerebrated, and not simply lobotomized, as a cure for their melancholia. Randall Jarrell curespoetwriting And the world said, Child, you will not be missed. You are cheaper than a wrench, your back is a road; Your death is a table in a book. You had our wit, our heart was sealed to you: Man is the judgment of the world. Randall Jarrell heartbookchildren Is an institution always a man's shadow shortened in the sun, the lowest common denominator of everybody in it? Randall Jarrell shadowsunmen Except from the Americans—but every pearl has its oyster. Randall Jarrell oysterspearls Art is long, and critics are the insects of a day. Randall Jarrell insectslongart A person is a process, one that leads to death. Randall Jarrell personsprocess The real war poets are always war poets, peace or any time. Randall Jarrell realtimewar originality" is everyone's aim, and novel techniques are as much prized as new scientific discoveries. [T.S.] Eliot states it with surprising naïveté: "It is exactly as wasteful for a poet to do what has been done already as for a biologist to rediscover Mendel's discoveries. Randall Jarrell techniquedonediscovery Goethe said, "The author whom a lexicon can keep up with is worth nothing"; Somerset Maugham says that the finest compliment he ever received was a letter in which one of his readers said: "I read your novel without having to look up a single word in the dictionary." These writers, plainly, lived in different worlds. Randall Jarrell lexicondifferentlooks You give me the feeling that the universe Was made by something more than human For something less than human. But I identify myself, as always, With something that there's something wrong with, With something human. Randall Jarrell madefeelingsgiving I think that one possible definition of our modern culture is that it is one in which nine-tenths of our intellectuals can't read any poetry. Randall Jarrell definitionsculturethinking
