amber > amber's Quotes

“I cannot sleep unless I am surrounded by books.”
― Jorge Luis Borges

“Life is a terminal illness.”
― David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks

“He never described himself as a poet or his work as poetry. The fact that the lines do not come to the edge of the page is no guarantee. Poetry is a verdict, not an occupation. He hated to argue about the techniques of verse. The poem is a dirty, bloody, burning thing that has to be grabbed first with bare hands. Once the fire celebrated Light, the dirt Humility, the blood Sacrifice. Now the poets are professional fire-eaters, freelancing at any carnival. The fire goes down easily and honours no one in particular.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Favorite Game

“I no longer want it all, just some comfort and some sex and only a minor love.”
― Charles Bukowski, Love is a dog from Hell

“Afterward I lay on my side with A Critique of Postcolonial Reason propped half-open on the pillow beside me. Occasionally I lifted a finger to turn the page and allowed the heavy and confusing syntax to drift down through my eyes and into my brain like fluid. I'm bettering myself, I thought. I'm going to become so smart that no one will understand me.”
― Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends

“I miss you always
when I go to the beach
the sand is wet with
tears that seem mine

although I never weep
and hold you in my
heart with a very real
humor you'd be proud of”
― Frank O'Hara

“The beloved's innocence
brutalizes the lover.
As the singing of a mad person
behind you on the train
enrages you,
its beautiful
animal-like teeth
shining amid black planes
of paint.
As Helen
enrages history.

Senza uscita.”
― Anne Carson, Plainwater: Essays and Poetry (By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature)

“If I could have him like this in my dreams every night of my life, I'd stake my entire life on dreams and be done with the rest.”
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

“τέτλαθι δή, κραδίη: καὶ κύντερον ἄλλο ποτ᾽ ἔτλης.
-
Be patient, my heart: for you have endured things worse than this before.”
― Homer, The Odyssey

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between