John Berryman quotes
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“Bats have no bankers and they do not drink and cannot be arrested and pay no tax and, in general, bats have it made.”
-- John BerrymanSource : 1964 'Dream Song No.63'.
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“The artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business.”
-- John BerrymanSource : 1972 Interview in The Paris Review, winter issue.
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“So if I were talking to a young writer, I would recommend the cultivation of extreme indifference to both praise and blame because praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.”
-- John Berryman -
“Praise will lead you to vanity, and blame will lead you to self-pity, and both are bad for writers.”
-- John Berryman -
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“We must travel in the direction of our fear.”
-- John BerrymanSource : "A Point of Age" l. 42 (1948)
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“I am so wise I had my mouth sewn shut.”
-- John BerrymanSource : John Berryman (2014). “The Dream Songs: Poems”, p.24, Macmillan
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“Them lady poets must not marry, pal.”
-- John BerrymanSource : John Berryman (2014). “His Toy, His Dream, His Rest”, p.187, Macmillan
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“I didn't want to be like Yeats; I wanted to be Yeats.”
-- John Berryman -
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“There is no such thing as Freedom (though it is the most important condition of human life, after Humility, -which does not exist either). There is only Slavery (walls around one) and absence-of-Slavery (ability to walk in any direction, or to remain still).”
-- John Berryman -
“something has been said for sobriety but very little.”
-- John BerrymanSource : John Berryman (2014). “77 Dream Songs: Poems”, p.64, Macmillan
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“I do strongly feel that among the greatest pieces of luck for high achievement is ordeal. Certain great artists can make out without it, Titian and others, but mostly you need ordeal. My idea is this: the artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business: Beethoven's deafness, Goya's deafness, Milton's blindness, that kind of thing.”
-- John BerrymanSource : "EM Forster's work tailed off once he finally had sex. Better that than a life of despair" by Sam Leith, www.theguardian.com. June 13, 2010.
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“These Songs are not meant to be understood, you understand. They are only meant to terrify & comfort.”
-- John Berryman -
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“We have reason to be afraid. This is a terrible place.”
-- John Berryman -
“I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored. Peoples bore me, literature bores me, especially great literature,”
-- John BerrymanSource : John Berryman (2014). “77 Dream Songs: Poems”, p.16, Macmillan
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“Two daiquiris withdrew into a corner of a gorgeous room and one told the other a lie.”
-- John BerrymanSource : John Berryman (2014). “The Dream Songs: Poems”, p.18, Macmillan
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“Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so. After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns, we ourselves flash and yearn”
-- John BerrymanSource : John Berryman, “Dream Song 14: Life, Friends, Is Boring”
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“This world is gradually becoming a place Where I do not care to be any more.”
-- John BerrymanSource : John Berryman (2014). “The Dream Songs: Poems”, p.168, Macmillan
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“Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.”
-- John Berryman -
“You should always be trying to write a poem you are unable to write, a poem you lack the technique, the language, the courage to achieve. Otherwise you're merely imitating yourself, going nowhere, because that's always easiest.”
-- John Berryman -
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“One must be ruthless with one's own writing or someone else will be.”
-- John Berryman -
“We are using our own skins for wallpaper and we cannot win.”
-- John BerrymanSource : John Berryman (2014). “77 Dream Songs: Poems”, p.60, Macmillan
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“Wishin' was dyin' but I gotta make it all this way to that bed on these feet.”
-- John BerrymanSource : John Berryman (2014). “The Dream Songs: Poems”, p.44, Macmillan
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“Offering Dragons quarter is no good, they regrow all their parts and come on again. They have to be killed.”
-- John Berryman -
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“I cry. Evil dissolves, and love, like foam; that love. Prattle of children powers me home, my heart claps like the swan’s under a frenzy of who love me and who shine.”
-- John Berryman -
“Ever to confess you're bored means you have no Inner Resources.”
-- John BerrymanSource : 77 Dream Songs (1964) no. 14
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“Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so. After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns, we ourselves flash and yearn, and moreover my mother told me as a boy (repeatedly) 'Ever to confess you're bored means you have no inner Resources.' I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored.”
-- John Berryman -
“Literature bores me, especially great literature”
-- John Berryman -
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