Stanley Kunitz quotes

Live in the layers, not on the litter. (Stanley Kunitz)
What makes the engine go? Desire, desire, desire. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
In the best painting as in authentic poetry one is aware of moral pressures exerted.. choices are important, moral pressure exists to make right and wrong choices. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
I want to write poems that are natural, luminous, deep, spare. I dream of an art so transparent that you can look through and see the world. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
The poem comes in the form of a blessing, like rapture breaking on the mind. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
Poetry is the enemy of the poem. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
The supreme morality of art is to endure. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was, though some principle of being abides from which I struggle not to stray. When I look behind, as I am compelled to look before I can gather strength to proceed on my journey, I see the milestones dwindling toward the horizon and the slow fires trailing from the abandoned campsites over which scavenger angels wheel on heavy wings. Oh, I have made myself a tribe out of my true affections, and my tribe is scattered! How shall the heart be reconciled to its feast of losses? In a rising wind the manic dust of my friends, those who fell along the way, bitterly stings my face. Yet I turn, I turn, exulting somewhat, with my will intact to go wherever I need to go and every stone on the road precious to me. In my darkest night, when the moon was covered and I roamed through wreckage, a nimbus-clouded voice directed me: "Live in the layers, not on the litter." View quote
Stanley Kunitz
The universe is a continuous web. Touch it at any point and the whole web quivers. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
I can hardly wait for tomorrow, it means a new life for me each and every day. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
We have to learn how to live with our frailties. The best people I know are inadequate and unashamed. (Stanley Kunitz)
A poem has secrets that the poet knows nothing of. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
The first task of the poet is to create the person who will write the poems. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
Poetry is language surprised in the act of changing into meaning. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
End with an image and don't explain. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
I like an ending that's both a door and a window. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
You must be careful not to deprive the poem of its wild origin. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
Deftly they opened the brain of a child, and it was full of flying dreams. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
The unconscious creates, the ego edits. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
Darling, do you remember the man you married? Touch me, remind me who I am. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
A poet needs to keep his wilderness alive inside him. To remain a poet after forty requires an awareness of your darkest Africa, that part of yourself that will never be tamed. (Stanley Kunitz)
An old poet ought never to be caught with his technique showing. View quote
Stanley Kunitz
Poetry today is easier to write but harder to remember. View quote
Stanley Kunitz