“Poetry arises from the desire to get beyond the finite and the historical—the human world of violence and difference—and to reach the transcendent or divine. You're moved to write a poem, you feel called upon to sing, because of that transcendent impulse. But as soon as you move from that impulse to the actual poem, the song of the infinite is compromised by the finitude of its terms.” WorldDesirePoetryViolenceDivinePoemHumanInfiniteHistoricalImpulseFiniteTranscendentActual Book:The Hatred of Poetry Source: The Hatred of Poetry
“Since the world is ending,” Peter quoted from behind us, “why not let the children touch the paintings?” WorldChildrenEndingPaintings Book:10:04 Source: 10:04
“My concern is how we live fictions, how fictions have real effects, become facts in that sense, and how our experience of the world changes depending on its arrangement into one narrative or another.” WorldRealFactsFictionEffectsConcernNarrativeArrangements Author:Ben Lerner
“I think the parable is a peculiar way of saying that redemption is immanent whether or not it's imminent, that the world to come is in a sense always already here, if still unavailable. I find this idea powerful for several reasons. For one thing, it's an antidote to despair.” IfsThinkingWorldWayStillsIdeasReasonPowerfulOne ThingDespairRedemptionPeculiarAntidoteParables Author:Ben Lerner
“I like to think - knowing that it's an enabling fiction - of those moments as fragments from a world to come, a world where price isn't the only measure of value.” ThinkingWorldMomentsValuesFictionKnowingFragmentsEnabling Author:Ben Lerner
