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Anne Sexton Quotes

Poet

Anne Sexton was an American poet known for her confessional and autobiographical poetry. Her works delved deeply into personal pain, family relationships, and social issues, profoundly influencing 20th-century poetry.

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Famous Anne Sexton Quotes

“I am crazy as hell, but I know it. And knowing it is a kind of sanity that makes the sickness worse.”

Knows Kind Hell Knowing Crazy Sickness Sanity I Am Crazy

Author:Anne Sexton

“The future is a fog that is still hanging out over the sea, a boat that floats home or does not. The trade winds blow me, and I do not know where the land is; the waves fold over each other; they are in love with themselves; sleeping in their own skin; and I float over them and I do not know about tomorrow.”

Knows Doe Stills Home Sleep Sea Land Wind Tomorrow Future Skins Trade Wave Blow Boat Hanging Out Fog Floats Folds Sleeping In

Book:Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters

Source: Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters

“I did not know the woman I would be nor that blood would bloom in me each month like an exotic flower, nor that children, two monuments, would break from between my legs.”

Knows Children Two Would Be Break Growing Up Blood Flower Months Aging Legs Monument Exotic Each Month

Author:Anne Sexton

“I raise my pelvis to God so that it may know the truth of how flowers smash through the long winter.”

Knows May Long Faith Sex Flower Raises Winter Fertility

Book:45 Mercy Street

Source: 45 Mercy Street

“I put the gold star up in the front window beside the flag. Alterations is what I know and what I did: hems, gussets and seams.”

Knows Stars Work Fronts Window Gold Flags Alterations Hem

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“Today is made of yesterday, each time I steal toward rites I do not know, waiting for the lost ingredient, as if salt or money or even lust would keep us calm and prove us whole at last.”

Ifs Knows Made Whole Today Lasts Lost Waiting Prove Calm Yesterday Lust Stealing Ingredients Salt Rite

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“Yes, I know. Death sits with his key in my lock. Not one day is taken for granted. Even nursery rhymes have put me in hock.”

Knows Taken Keys One Day Granted Mortality Locks Rhyme Carpe Diem Nursery Taken For Granted Carpe Nursery Rhymes

Book:Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

Source: Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories

“Someone is dead. Even the trees know it, those poor old dancers who come on lewdly, all pea-green scarfs and spine pole.”

Knows Poor Tree Green Dancer Spine Peas

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“I would like to think that no one would die anymore if we all believed in daisies but the worms know better, don't they? They slide into the ear of a corpse and listen to his great sigh.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Dies Ears Sigh Worms Slides Corpses Daisies

Book:The death notebooks

Source: The death notebooks

“Watch out for intellect, because it knows so much it knows nothing and leaves you hanging upside down, mouthing knowledge as your heart falls out of your mouth.”

Knows Love Heart Poetry Fall Watches Mouths Intellect Upside Down Things Upside Down

Author:Anne Sexton

“Don't bite till you know if it's bread or stone.”

Ifs Knows Stones Bread Bites

Book:The Awful Rowing Toward God

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

“Suicides have a special language. Like carpenters they want to know which tools. They never ask why build.”

Knows Want Asks Language Special Tools Suicide Carpenter

Author:Anne Sexton

“But suicides have a special language. Like carpenters they want to know which tools. They never ask why build. Twice I have so simply declared myself, have possessed the enemy, eaten the enemy, have taken on his craft, his magic.”

Knows Want Asks Language Enemy Taken Magic Special Tools Suicide Crafts Possessed Carpenter

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“And if I tried to give you something else, something outside myself, you would not know that the worst of anyone can be, finally, an accident of hope”

Ifs Knows Giving Worst Accidents

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

“Writers are such phonies: they sometimes have wise insights but they don't live by them at all. That's what writers are like...you think they know something, but usually they are just messes.”

Thinking Knows Sometimes Wise Like You Insight Mess Live By Phony

Author:Anne Sexton

“Those moments before a poem comes, when the heightened awareness comes over you, and you realize a poem is buried there somewhere, you prepare yourself. I run around, you know, kind of skipping around the house, marvelous elation. It’s as though I could fly.”

Knows Kind Moments Running House Realizing Awareness Over You Buried Marvelous Elation

Author:Anne Sexton

“I lay there silently, hoarding my small dignity. I did not ask about the gate or the closet. I did not question the bedtime ritual where, on the cold bathroom tiles, I was spread out daily and examined for flaws. I did not know that my bones, those solids, those pieces of sculpture would not splinter.”

Knows Asks Pieces Cold Dignity Lays Spread Bones Gates Flaws Ritual Closets Bathroom Sculpture Bedtime Hoarding Splinters Tiles

Author:Anne Sexton

“When I'm writing, I know I'm doing the thing I was born to do.”

Knows Inspirational Writing Born

Author:Anne Sexton

“Don’t worry if they say you’re crazy. They said that about me and yet I was saner than all of them. I knew. No matter. You know. Insane or sane, you know. It’s a good thing to know - no matter what they call it.”

Ifs Knows Said Matter Worry Crazy No Matter What Good Things Insane Sane They Said

Book:Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters

Source: Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters

“I tell you what you’ll never really know: all the medical hypothesis that explained my brain will never be as true as these struck leaves letting go.”

Knows Brain Letting Go Medical Hypothesis

Book:Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

Source: Selected Poems of Anne Sexton

About the Author

Born: November 9, 1928
Died: October 4, 1974
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 369

Books & Sources

Selected Poems of Anne SextonRelated source material

The Awful Rowing Toward GodRelated source material

Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in LettersRelated source material

Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three storiesRelated source material

TransformationsRelated source material

45 Mercy StreetRelated source material

Love PoemsRelated source material

The death notebooksRelated source material

Selected poemsRelated source material

Anne Sexton: A Self Portrait in LettersRelated source material

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