Wyatt

“Poetic intelligence lacks, I think, such focused investment in conclusion, being naturally wary of its own assumptions. It derives its energy from a willingness to discard conclusion in the face of evidence, its willingness, in fact, to discard anything.”
― Louise Glück, Proofs & Theories: Essays on Poetry – Rigorous Literary Criticism on Poetics and Writing from a Nobel Prize Winner

“Do you ask me whom I have conquered? Neither the Persians, nor the far-off Medes, nor any warlike race that lies beyond the Dahae;2 not these, but greed, ambition, and the fear of death that has conquered the conquerors of the world.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“it seemed clear to me that if my talent was so fragile, so precarious, as to require insulation from the world, it would never produce what I dreamed of anyway.”
― Louise Glück, Proofs & Theories: Essays on Poetry – Rigorous Literary Criticism on Poetics and Writing from a Nobel Prize Winner

“Among the residual gifts of love is a composure, an openness to all experience, so profound it amounts to an acceptance of death. Or, more accurately, the future is no longer necessary. One is not rash, neither is one paralyzed by conservatism or hope. Simply, the sense of having lived, of having known one’s fate, is very strong. And that sensation tells us what it is to live without the restrictions of fear. Such moments, in a way, have nothing to teach; they can be neither contrived nor prolonged by will. What they establish is a standard. Not forever, but for once it was possible to refuse consolation, to refuse the blindfold.”
― Louise Glück, Proofs & Theories: Essays on Poetry – Rigorous Literary Criticism on Poetics and Writing from a Nobel Prize Winner