Gregory Corso > Quotes

“Standing on a street corner waiting for no one is power.”
― Gregory Corso

“If you believe you're a poet, then you're saved.
”
― Gregory Corso

“I learned life were no dream
I learned truth deceived
Man is not God
Life is a century
Death an instant”
― Gregory Corso

“Spirit
is Life
It flows thru
the death of me
endlessly
like a river
unafraid
of becoming
the sea”
― Gregory Corso

“It is a great feeling to know
that from a window
I can go to books to cans of beer to past loves.
And from these gather enough dream
to sneak out a back door.”
― Gregory Corso, The Vestal Lady on Brattle and Other Poems

“Ah, if I were dictator I'd have poets throwing bombs!”
― Gregory Corso, An Accidental Autobiography: The Selected Letters

“Poets don't finish poems, they abandon them.”
― Gregory Corso

“I think of New York City lost in stars
forgotten as a blue haired pet of childhood love
Tonight the night is full;”
― Gregory Corso

“Dante’s step into Hell will never be forgotten by Hell.”
― Gregory Corso

“but if a girl were possible
as I am possible
then marriage would be possible...”
― Gregory Corso

“was it man's love to screw the sky with monuments span the bay with orange and silver bridges shuttling structure into structure incorruptible in this endless tie each age impassions be it in stone or steel either in echo or halfheard ruin”
― Gregory Corso

“If you have a choice of two things and can't decide, take both.”
― Gregory Corso

“Around people
if I feel I’m gonna die
I excuse myself
telling them “I gotta go!”
“Go where?” they wanna know
I don’t answer
I just get outa there
away from them
because somehow
they sense something wrong
and never know what to do
it scares them such suddenness
How awful
to just sit there
and they asking:
“Are you okay?”
“Can we get you something?”
“Want to lie down?”
Ye gods! people!
who wants to die amongst people?!
Especially when they can’t do shit
To the movies — to the movies
that’s where I hurry to
when I feel I’m going to die
So far it’s worked.”
― Gregory Corso

“Faithless lyricists I have read
They'd amputate a rose to know a rose
- and patch it a clumsy detection”
― Gregory Corso, The Happy Birthday of Death

“FOR MILES Your sound is faultless pure & round holy almost profound Your sound is your sound true & from within a confession soulful & lovely Poet whose sound is played lost or recorded but heard can you recall that 54 night at the Open Door when you & bird wailed five in the morning some wondrous yet unimaginable score?”
― Gregory Corso, Gasoline

“Henry Hudson Screamed on the Half-Moon :
"Police are a necessary evil !"

I dreamed a cop, an old cop,
a whitehaired cop bowed sad on a sofa
knowing in his years he carried a gun
a gun to stop the breath of a breathing being
a gun to cause man to push up daisies forever -
and when that realization mowed him down on the sofa
- he wept to know man”
― Gregory Corso, The Happy Birthday of Death

“Power is not to be dropped from a plane”
― Gregory Corso, Gasoline

“Should I get married? Should I be good?”
― Gregory Corso, Marriage

“But police too must go to Heaven!
That's why the boys are sad
so sadly dancing
so tiredly kissing God -”
― Gregory Corso

“Surely I'd give it for a nipple a rubber Tacitus
For a rattle bag of broken Bach records
Tack Della Francesca all over its crib
Sew the Greek alphabet on its bib
And build for its playpen a roofless Parthenon”
― Gregory Corso

“Niagara Falls! Hordes of us! Husbands! Wives! Flowers! Chocolates!
All streaming into cozy hotels
All going to do the same thing tonight
The indifferent clerk he knowing what was going to happen
The lobby zombies they knowing what
The whistling elevator man he knowing
The winking bellboy knowing
Everybody knowing! I'd be almost inclined not to do anything!
Stay up all night! Stare that hotel clerk in the eye!
Screaming: I deny honeymoon! I deny honeymoon!
running rampant into those almost climatic suites
yelling Radio belly! Cat shovel!
O I'd live in Niagara forever! in a dark cave beneath the Falls
I'd sit there the Mad Honeymooner devising ways to break marriages, a scourge of
bigamy a saint of divorce--”
― Gregory Corso

“ইতিহাসের পলাতক সময়ের নিয়ন্ত্রক তুমি বোমা মারো
ব্রহ্মাণ্ডের খেলনা সবথেকে দারুন ছিনিয়ে নেয়া আকাশ তোমাকে ঘেন্না করতে পারি না
আমি কি বজ্জাত বিদ্যুৎ গাধার চোয়ালকে ঘেন্না করতে পারি
যিশু জন্মের এক কোটি বছর আগের পাথরের চাঁই গদা লাঠি কুঠার
গুলতি দা ভিঞ্চি রেডইনডিয়ান যুদ্ধকুঠার আপাচে-নেতার মশাল র‌্যাথবোনের ছোরা
আহ আর দুঃখি বেপরোয়া বন্দুক ভেরলেম পুশকিন ডিলিঞ্জার বোগার্টের
আহ সন্ত মাইকেলের কি জ্বলন্ত তরোয়াল ছিল না সন্ত জর্জের শূল ডেভিডের গুলতি
বোমা তুমি ততোই নিষ্ঠুর যেমন তোমাকে মানুষ তৈরি করে তুমি ক্যানসারের চেয়ে নিষ্ঠুর নও
সব মানুষই তোমাকে ঘেন্না করে তারা বরং গাড়ির ধাক্কায় বাজপড়ায় ডুবে মরতে চাইবে
ছাদ থেকে পড়ে ইলেকট্রিক-চেয়ারে ঋডরোগে বুড়ো হয়ে হে বোমা
তারা যেকোনো উপায়ে মরতে চাইবে কিন্তু তুমি মৃত্যুর আঙুল স্বাধীনকর্মী
তুমি ফাটো বা না ফাটো তা মানুষের ব্যাপার নয় মৃত্যু বহুকাল যাবৎ আমাদের বিপর্যস্ত করেছে”
― Gregory Corso, Selected Poems

“Il y avait des femmes, elles étaient là, je les connaissais, leurs familles les poussaient dans des institutions, elles on reçu des chocs électriques. Dans les années 50 si tu étais un homme tu pouvais être un rebelle, mais si tu étais une femme ta famille te bloquait. Il y eut certaines exceptions, je les connaissais, un jour quelqu'un écrira sur elles.”
― Gregory Corso