John Ashbery

“The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot.”

“I tried each thing, only some were immortal and free.”

“We are all our own graveyards, I believe; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were.”

“Tomorrow is easy, but today is uncharted.”

“What is writing? Well, not just putting words on a page. It's about getting from a place of not knowing to a place of knowing.”

“This was our ambition: to be small and clear and free.”

“I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems.”

“The soul is not a soul, / Has no secret, is small, and it fits / Its hollow half-shell.”

“In the evening, the distant mountains have gone, / And the sea is taking its place. / The sea is all around.”