“One writes because one has been touched by the yearning for and the despair of ever touching the Other.”
Charles Simic“Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.”
Charles Simic“Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.”
Charles Simic“For Emily Dickinson every philosophical idea was a potential lover. Metaphysics is the realm of eternal seduction of the spirit by ideas.”
Charles Simic“The idea is to spin the wheel of metaphors and images until sparks of associations begin to fly for the reader.”
Charles Simic“Poetry is an orphan of silence.”
Charles Simic“Memory, all-night's bedside tattoo artist.”
Charles Simic, Jackstraws“I love America," he'd tell us. We were going to make a million dollars manufacturing objects we had seen in dreams that night.”
Charles Simic, The World Doesn't End“Poetry: three mismatched shoes at the entrance of a dark alley.”
Charles Simic, Dime-Store Alchemy“The ambition of much of today's literary theory seems to be to find ways to read literature without imagination.”
Charles Simic, The Unemployed Fortune-Teller: Essays and Memoirs“One writes because one has been touched by the yearning for and the despair of ever touching the Other.”
Charles Simic, The Unemployed Fortune-Teller: Essays and Memoirs