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John Ashbery Quotes

Poet

John Ashbery is an influential American poet born on July 28, 1927. Known for his innovative poetry style and rich imagination, his work has had a profound impact on postmodern poetry.

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All Life Inspirational Inspirational Life Thinking Way Knows People Poetry Want Ifs

Famous John Ashbery Quotes

“It is the lumps and trials That tell us whether we shall be known And whether our fate can be exemplary, like a star.”

Fate Hardship

Book:Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

Source: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

“So one can lose a good idea by not writing it down, yet by losing it one can have it: it nourishes other asides it knows nothing of, would not recognize itself in, yet when the negotiations are terminated, speaks in the acts of that progenitor, and does recognize itself, is grateful for not having done so earlier.”

Memory Thought Forgetting

Book:Flow Chart

Source: Flow Chart

“The music brought us what it seemed / We had long desired, but in a form / so rarefied there was no emptiness of sensation”

Music The Mythological Poet

Book:Some Trees

Source: Some Trees

“A little bunny or some kind of ferret was probably there too, and bore witness as only rodents can.”

Poetry Poem Rodents Bunny Ferret

Author:John Ashbery

“You bad birds, But God shall not punish you, you Shall be with us in heaven, though less Conscious of your happiness, perhaps, than we. Hell is a not quite satisfactory heaven, probably, But you are the fruit and jewels Of my arrangement . . .”

Heaven Hell Birds

Book:Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

Source: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

“Darkness fell like a wet sponge.”

Night Darkness John Ashberry

Book:Some Trees

Source: Some Trees

“What I like about music is its ability to be convincing, to carry an argument through successfully to the finish, though the terms of the argument remain unknown quantities.”

Term Ability Music Music Is Argument Quantity Convincing

Author:John Ashbery

“The facts of history have been too well rehearsed.”

Wells Has Beens Facts History

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“One can lose a good idea by not writing it down, yet by losing it one can have it: it nourishes other asides it knows nothing of, would not recognize itself in, yet when the negotiations are terminated, speaks in the acts of that progenitor, and does recognize itself, is grateful for not having done so earlier.”

Knows Writing Doe Ideas Done Speak Loses Losing Grateful Good Ideas Negotiation

Author:John Ashbery

“The mind Is so hospitable, taking in everything Like boarders, and you don't see until It's all over how little there was to learn Once the stench of knowledge has dissipated.”

Mind Littles

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“Once a happy old man One can never change the core of things, and light burns you the harder for it.”

Men Light Age Harder Core Old Age Old Man Never Change

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“What is the past, what is it all for? A mental sandwich?”

Past Sandwiches

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“I am often asked why I write, and I don't know really--I just want to.”

Knows Want Writing

Author:John Ashbery

“We might realize that the present moment may be one of an eternal or sempiternal series of moments, all of which will resemble it because, in some ways, they are the present, and won't in other ways, because the present will be the past by that time.”

Way May Moments Might Past Realizing Eternal Series Present Moment

Author:John Ashbery

“The promise of learning is a delusion.... Tomorrow would alter the sense of what had already been learned, that the learning process is extended in this way, so that from this standpoint none of us ever graduates from college, for time is an emulsion, and probably thinking not to grow up is the brightest kind of maturity for us, right now at any rate.”

Thinking Way Kind Grows Process Growing Up College Tomorrow Promise Right Now Rate Maturity Delusion Graduates Standpoint Learning Process

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“I would like to please the reader, and I think that surprise has to be an element of this, and that may necessitate a certain amount of teasing. To shock the reader is something else again. That has to be handled with great care if you're not going to alienate and hurt him, and I'm firmly against that, just as I disapprove of people who dress with that in mind - dye their hair blue and stick safety pins through their noses and so on.”

People Ifs Thinking Mind May Care Certain Hurt Hair Reader Amount Please Elements Dresses Safety Blue Sticks Surprise Noses Shock Pins Tease Safety Pins

Author:John Ashbery

“Just keep playing, mastering as you do the step Into disorder this one meant. Don't you see It's all we can do? Meanwhile, great fires Arise, as of haystacks aflame. The dial has been set And that's ominous, but all your graciousness in living Conspires with it, now that this is our home: A place to be from, and have people ask about.”

People Has Beens Home Asks Can Do Steps Fire Arise Disorder Graciousness Ominous

Book:A Wave: Poems

Source: A Wave: Poems

“How funny your name would be if you could follow it back to where the first person thought of saying it, naming himself that, or maybe some other persons thought of it and named that person. It would be like following a river to its source, which would be impossible. Rivers have no source.”

Ifs Firsts Persons Would Be Names Impossible Source Rivers Following First Person

Book:Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems

Source: Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems

“Therefore bivouac we On this great, blond highway, unimpeded by Veiled scruples, worn conundrums. Morning is Impermanent. Grab sex things, swing up Over the horizon like a boy On a fishing expedition.”

Sex Boys Morning Sea Rivers Fishes Boat Lakes Fishing Horizon Swings Worn Highways Expeditions Scruples Like A Boy Conundrums

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“I think that in the process of writing, all kinds of unexpected things happen that shift the poet away from his plan and that these accidents are really what we mean when we talk about poetry.”

Thinking Writing Kind Mean Happens Process Plans Poet Accidents Things Happen All Kinds Unexpected Unexpected Things

Author:John Ashbery

“I like poems you can tack all over with a hammer and there are no hollow places.”

Poetry Hammers Hollow

Author:John Ashbery

“I don't want to read what is going to slide down easily; there has to be some crunch, a certain amount of resilience.”

Want Certain Amount Resilience Slides Crunch

Author:John Ashbery

“Part of the strength of Pollock and Rothko's art, in fact, is this doubt as to whether art may be there at all.”

May Art Facts Poetry Literature Doubt Pollock

Author:John Ashbery

“I want a bedroom near the sky, an astrologer's cave Where I can fashion eclogues that are chaste and grave.”

Want I Can Poetry Sky Fashion Poet Graves Bedroom Caves Astrology Chaste

Book:A Wave: Poems

Source: A Wave: Poems

“Some certified nut Will try to tell you it's poetry, (It's extraordinary, it makes a great deal of sense) But watch out or he'll start with some New notion or other.”

Trying Poetry Deals Watches Poet Extraordinary Notion Nuts

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“And we may be led, then, upward through more Powerful forms of poetry, past columns With peeling posters on them, to the country of indifference. Meanwhile if the swell diapasons, blooms Unhappily and too soon, the little people are nonetheless real.”

People Ifs May Littles Art Real Country Past Form Poetry Powerful Poet Indifference Columns Posters Peeling

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“And the way Though discontinuous, and intermittent, sometimes Not heard of for years at a time, did, Nonetheless, move up, although, to his surprise It was inside the house, And always getting narrower.”

Thinking Way Years Ideas Sometimes Moving House Heard Surprise Thoughtful Intermittent

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“Sometimes a musical phrase would perfectly sum up The mood of a moment. One of those lovelorn sonatas For wind instruments was riding past on a solemn white horse. Everybody wondered who the new arrival was.”

Sometimes Moments Past White Music Wind Musician Horse Instruments Musical Mood Phrases Riding Solemn Arrivals White Horse Sonatas New Arrivals Wind Instruments

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“So I cradle this average violin that knows Only forgotten showtunes, but argues The possibility of free declamation anchored To a dull refrain.”

Knows Music Possibility Musician Forgotten Average Arguing Dull Cradle Violin Refrain Declamation

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“It is because everything is relative That we shall never see in that sphere of pure wisdom and Entertainment much more than groping shadows of an incomplete Former existence so close it burns like the mouth that Closes down over all your effort like the moment Of death”

Moments Wisdom Death Effort Existence Pure Mouths Shadow Entertainment Former Relative Spheres Incomplete

Book:John Ashbery, Lee Harwood, Tom Raworth

Source: John Ashbery, Lee Harwood, Tom Raworth

“We are prisoners of the world's demented sink. The soft enchantments of our years of innocence Are harvested by accredited experience Our fondest memories soon turn to poison And only oblivion remains in season.”

World Life Years Turns Memories Experience Seasons Remains Aging Innocence Poison Prisoner Life Experience Oblivion Enchantment Demented

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“Silly girls your heads full of boys”

Girl Boys Silly Silly Girl

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“Extreme patience and persistence are required, Yet everybody succeeds at this before being handed The surprise box lunch of the rest of his life.”

Life Growing Up Succeed Patience Surprise Boxes Extremes Persistence Lunch Patience And Persistence

Book:Shadow train: poems

Source: Shadow train: poems

“I lost my ridiculous accent without acquiring another”

Lost Speech Ridiculous Accents

Book:A Wave: Poems

Source: A Wave: Poems

“Each servant stamps the reader with a look.”

Looks Reading Reader Servant Stamps

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“Alone with our madness and favorite flower We see that there really is nothing left to write about. Or rather, it is necessary to write about the same old things In the same way, repeating the same things over and over For love to continue and be gradually different.”

Way Love Writing Different Left Flower Madness Old Things Same Old Thing

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“Imagine a painter crucified by his subject!”

Art Artist Imagine Subjects Failure Painter

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“The winter does what it can for its children.”

Children Doe Winter

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“It is written in the Book of Usable Minutes That all things have their center in their dying.”

Book Death Written Minutes Dying All Things

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“And just as there are no words for the surface, that is, No words to say what it really is, that it is not Superficial but a visible core, then there is No way out of the problem of pathos vs. experience.”

Way Problem Experience Surface Core Visible Superficial Pathos

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“Until, accustomed to disappointments, you can let yourself rule and be ruled by these strings or emanations that connect everything together, you haven't fully exorcised the demon of doubt that sets you in motion like a rocking horse that cannot stop rocking.”

Together Doubt Havens Trust Horse Disappointment Demon Strings Accustomed Rocking Horses

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“Not until it starts to stink does the inevitable happen.”

Doe Happens Events Inevitable Stink Inevitability

Book:A Wave: Poems

Source: A Wave: Poems

“... the first step of the terrible journey toward feeling somebody should act, that ends in utter confusion and hopelessness, east of the sun and west of the moon.”

Should Firsts Ends Feelings Steps Sun Journey Terrible Moon West East Confusion First Steps Hopelessness

Book:John Ashbery, Lee Harwood, Tom Raworth

Source: John Ashbery, Lee Harwood, Tom Raworth

“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one's actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”

Ifs Needs Seems Action Certain Numbers Plot Vitality Convincing

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“Poetry is mostly hunches.”

Poetry Is Hunches

Author:John Ashbery

“I often wonder if I am suffering from some mental dysfunction because of how weird and baffling my poetry seems to so many people and sometimes to me too.”

People Ifs Sometimes Seems Suffering Wonder Dysfunction

Author:John Ashbery

“A yak is a prehistoric cabbage; of that, we can be sure.”

Cabbage Prehistoric Yaks

Author:John Ashbery

“It never seems to occur to anyone that each reader is different, and that even those who might be said to resemble each other will each bring an individual set of experiences and references to their reading, and interpret and misinterpret it according to these.”

Said Different Seems Might Reading Individual Reader

Book:Selected Prose

Source: Selected Prose

“A perfect example of the new republic's urge to drape itself with the togas of classical respectability.”

Perfect Example Urges Republic Respectability Drapes Togas

Author:John Ashbery

“I listen to music a great deal. In a way, it's trying to express things that can't be expressed in words. That's something that interests me, too. Even though I use words to express myself, I am trying to, it seems to me, get beyond that.”

Way Trying Use Seems Interest Deals Listening To Music

Author:John Ashbery

About the Author

Born: July 28, 1927
Known for: Poet
Quotes: 97

Books & Sources

Selected poemsRelated source material

A Wave: PoemsRelated source material

Shadow train: poemsRelated source material

John Ashbery, Lee Harwood, Tom RaworthRelated source material

Notes from the Air: Selected Later PoemsRelated source material

Self-Portrait in a Convex MirrorRelated source material

Some TreesRelated source material

The Tennis Court Oath: A Book of PoemsRelated source material

Flow ChartRelated source material

Reported sightings: art chronicles, 1957-1987Related source material

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