Quotes by John Ashbery

“Walter Pater said that all the arts aspire to the condition of music, but I’ve always felt that music aspires to the condition of words.”

“So one can lose a good ideaby not writing it down, yet by losing it one can have it: it nourishes other asidesit knows nothing of, would not recognize itself in, yet when the negotiationsare termin...”

“Did I say that? One says so many things, and the problem is they all get written down.”

“―John Ashbery, The Art of Poetry No. 33. Interviewed by Peter A. Stitt.”

“It didn’t pay very much, but it enabled me to get other jobs doing art criticism, which I didn’t want to do very much, but as so often when you exhibit reluctance to do something, people think you ...”

“When I originally started writing, I expected that probably very few people would read my poetry because in those days people didn’t read poetry much anyway.”

“Well, there are certain stock words that I have found myself using a great deal. When I become aware of them, it is an alarm signal meaning I am falling back on something that has served in the pas...”

“Somewhere someone is traveling furiously toward you,At incredible speed, traveling day and night,Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through narrow passes.But will he know where to ...”

“In the beginning there are those who don't quite fit inBut are somehow okay. And then some morningThere are places that suddenly seem wonderful:Weather and water seem wonderful,And the peaceful nig...”

“These two guys in the front yard—Are they here to help?”

“John Ashbery, incontrovertibly a great poet, remains both difficult and underread, even by his readers.”

“He had meticulous taste, if taste is a form of discernment, and discernment a kind of care and humility toward the world, its material stuff as well as its arbitrary weathers. He was drawn to the l...”