Fleur Adcock quotes

“I write in praise of the solitary act: of not feeling a trespassing tongue forced into one's mouth, one's breath smothered, nipples crushed against the ribcage, and that metallic tingling in the chin set off by a certain odd nerve: unpleasure.”
-- Fleur Adcock

Source : Fleur Adcock (2000). “Poems 1960-2000”, Bloodaxe Books Limited

#Writing Quotes #Solitude Quotes #Feelings Quotes

“Art's whatever you choose to frame.”
-- Fleur Adcock

Source : Fleur Adcock (2000). “Poems 1960-2000”, Bloodaxe Books Limited

#Art Quotes #You Choose Quotes

“Poetry is a search for ways of communication; it must be conducted with openness, flexibility, and a constant readiness to listen.”
-- Fleur Adcock

#Communication Quotes #Poetry Quotes #Way Quotes

“There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public. There are worse things than these miniature betrayals, committed or endured or suspected; there are worse things than not being able to sleep for thinking about them. It is 5 a.m. All the worse things come stalking in and stand icily about the bed looking worse and worse and worse.”
-- Fleur Adcock

Source : Fleur Adcock (2000). “Poems 1960-2000”, Bloodaxe Books Limited

#Betrayal Quotes #Sleep Quotes #Insomnia Quotes

“You have to listen to your own voice. Not your heart, not your instincts, not any of that self-permissive psycho-babble stuff. No, none of that. If it was just about instincts and bright ideas it wouldn't need to be a voice. It's about words. You hear them, read them, then you write. But mostly read. Read the bloody poems.”
-- Fleur Adcock

#Writing Quotes #Heart Quotes #Self Quotes

“Somehow we manage it: to like our friends, to tolerate not only their little ways but their huge neuroses, their monumental oddness: "Oh well," we smile, "it's one of his funny days."”
-- Fleur Adcock

Source : Fleur Adcock (2000). “Poems 1960-2000”, Bloodaxe Books Limited

#Neurosis Quotes #Littles Quotes #Way Quotes

“Because of a friend, life is a little stronger, fuller, more gracious thing for the friend's existence, whether he be near or far. If the friend is close at hand, that is best; but if he is far away he still is there to think of, to wonder about, to hear from, to write to, to share life and experience with, to serve, to honor, to admire, to love.”

“It came about as follows: over the years when I was involved in dianetics, I wrote the beginnings of many stories. I would get an idea, and then write the beginning, and then never touch it again.”

“I owe my solitude to other people.”

“There is a solitude in poverty, but a solitude which restores to each thing its value.”

“There are degrees and kinds of solitude. ... I know of no solitude so secure as one guarded by a spring flood; nor do the geese, who have seen more kinds and degrees of aloneness than I have.”

“On Tuesday, when it hails and snows, The feeling on me grows and grows That hardly anybody knows If those are these or these are those.”

“Indo-European peoples and Semitic peoples are today still completely different... Jews almost everywhere form a special society... Muslims (the Semitic spirit is today represented mainly by Islam) and the Europeans stand face to face like two beings of different species, having nothing common in the way of thinking and feeling...”

Source : "Naţionalitatea în artă" ("Nationality in Art") by A. C. Cuza, Bucureşti: Cartea Romaneasca, 1905.

“Other people are not here to fulfill our needs or meet our expectations, nor will they always treat us well. Failure to accept this will generate feelings of anger and resentment. Peace of mind comes with taking people as they are and emphasizing the positive.”

Source : A. S. A. Harrison (2013). “The Silent Wife: A Novel”, p.17, Penguin

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving.”

“What I would like you always to do is what I try humbly to do myself, that is, never to say or to do anything which would wound the feelings or the self-respect of any human being, and to give special consideration to all who are in any way repressed.”