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Famous Roman Payne Quotes

“Somewhere I’d heard, or invented perhaps, that the only pleasures found during a waning moon are misfortunes in disguise. Superstition aside, I avoid pleasure during the waning or absent moon out of respect for the bounty this world offers me. I profit from great harvests in life and believe in the importance of seasons.”

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Book:Rooftop Soliloquy
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“Ô, the wine of a woman from heaven is sent, more perfect than all that a man can invent. When she came to my bed and begged me with sighs not to tempt her towards passion nor actions unwise, I told her I’d spare her and kissed her closed eyes, then unbraided her body of its clothing disguise. While our bodies were nude bathed in candlelight fine I devoured her mouth, tender lips divine; and I drank through her thighs her feminine wine. Ô, the wine of a woman from heaven is sent, more perfect than all that a man can invent.”

LoveLifeWisdomRunningBeautifulHappinessDesirePoetryMotivationTimeGirlPassionLiteratureWomenGoalImaginationFreedomPowerRiskDreamsFeminismStrengthInspireSweetLife PhilosophyLoversTravelLivingRomanticFemaleEmpowermentSacredWineMemoryPassionateGoalsSurrenderWanderSensualityKissSensualWomanGentleGirlsFeminineHidingBedroomMaking LoveFirst LoveLovingWomanhoodFemininityGirl PowerFemale EmpowermentHeartsSeductiveWomen S LiberationDriveWomen S InspirationalFemale CharactersWomen S StrengthRomanWanderlustWildnessAllegoryWanderingWandererSecretiveFemmePrettyFemalesWoman S StrengthRoamingKidRoman PayneFemale BeautyGirl QuotesWoman S CharacterPayneFemale HeroWanderessMapFemale LiberationThe WanderessPoetessExpatriateEnjoyingAdventuressDreameressWayfaringFillesJeune Fille
Author:Roman Payne
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“What a face this girl possessed!—Could I neither die then nor gaze at her face every day, I would need to recreate it through painting or sculpture, or through fatherhood, until a second such face could be born.”

ArtFacesDesireArtistWomenBeautyCreativityCreationUrgesGirlsFatherhoodSculptureRebirthFaceRomanPsycheCreationismArtists LifeRoman PaynePayneWanderessThe WanderessPaintersArtistic PassionArtistic DesireArtistic Urge
Book:The Wanderess
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“Our lips were for each other and our eyes were full of dreams. We knew nothing of travel and we knew nothing of loss. Ours was a world of eternal spring, until the summer came.”

ChildrenGodWisdomRunningRomanceDesirePoetryTimePassionWomenChangeBeautySeaChildhoodStrengthSweetLoversPoemTravelKissingSummerSpringRomanticSacredTrue LoveSexualitySurrenderWanderSensualitySensualInnocenceWomanPoetry QuotesSunshineWildernessSecretsLove QuoteMaking LoveLove At First SightLovingWomanhoodSeductionEdenLoving SomeoneYoung LoveSeductiveWomen S LiberationThighsChildlikeWomen S InspirationalLove MakingWomen S StrengthAdam And EveIntoxicationRomanWanderlustOpiumWanderingHope And DespairGarden Of EdenWandererBlushingSecretiveWoman S StrengthRoman PayneWoman S CharacterPayneWanderessCourtingPoetry QuotationsLovers Love StoryThe WanderessSummer RainLovers SadnessLife ChangeBlushQuotes From PoemsWildflowerWayfaringWet HairChildlikenessNocturneStorybookDesiring SomeoneSexual QuoteShort Love QuoteSummer ShowersThe Love Of Europa
Book:Hope and Despair
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“Ô, Muse of the Heart’s Passion, let me relive my Love’s memory, to remember her body, so brave and so free, and the sound of my Dreameress singing to me, and the scent of my Dreameress sleeping by me, Ô, sing, sweet Muse, my soliloquy!”

ChildrenGodWisdomRunningRomanceDesirePoetryTimePassionWomenChangeBeautySeaChildhoodStrengthSweetLoversPoemTravelKissingSummerSpringRomanticSacredTrue LoveSexualitySurrenderWanderSensualitySensualInnocenceWomanPoetry QuotesSunshineWildernessSecretsLove QuoteMaking LoveLove At First SightLovingWomanhoodSeductionEdenLoving SomeoneYoung LoveSeductiveWomen S LiberationThighsChildlikeWomen S InspirationalLove MakingWomen S StrengthAdam And EveIntoxicationRomanWanderlustOpiumWanderingHope And DespairGarden Of EdenWandererBlushingSecretiveWoman S StrengthRoman PayneWoman S CharacterPayneWanderessCourtingPoetry QuotationsLovers Love StoryThe WanderessSummer RainLovers SadnessLife ChangeBlushQuotes From PoemsDreameressWildflowerWayfaringWet HairChildlikenessNocturneStorybookDesiring SomeoneParisian ReverieSexual QuoteShort Love QuoteSummer Showers
Author:Roman Payne
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“It’s not that we have to leave this life one day, it's how many things we have to leave all at once: holding hands, hotel rooms, wine, summertime, drunkenness, and the physics of falling leaves, clothing, myrrh, perfumed hair, flirting friends, two strangers' glance; the reflection of the moon, with words like, 'Soon' ... 'do you want me?' ... '...to lie enlaced' ... 'and sleep entwined' thinking ahead, with thoughts behind...?' Ô, Why! Why can’t we leave this life slowly?”

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Author:Roman Payne
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“I sat up in the strange bed fearing it had been a dream, afraid I would never see her again. Not because I wanted anything from her, only her presence. The disappearance of the presence of beauty is the most despairing of events on this time-wheel of ours that rolls onward towards death.”

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Book:The Basement Trains: A 21st Century Poem
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“Ô, Wanderess, Wanderess When did you feel your most euphoric kiss? Was I the source of your greatest bliss?”

ChildrenGodWisdomRunningRomanceDesirePoetryTimePassionWomenChangeBeautySeaChildhoodStrengthSweetLoversPoemTravelKissingSummerSpringRomanticSacredTrue LoveSexualitySurrenderWanderSensualitySensualInnocenceWomanPoetry QuotesSunshineWildernessSecretsLove QuoteMaking LoveLove At First SightLovingWomanhoodSeductionEdenLoving SomeoneYoung LoveSeductiveWomen S LiberationThighsChildlikeWomen S InspirationalLove MakingWomen S StrengthAdam And EveIntoxicationRomanWanderlustOpiumWanderingHope And DespairGarden Of EdenWandererBlushingSecretiveWoman S StrengthRoman PayneWoman S CharacterPayneWanderessCourtingPoetry QuotationsLovers Love StoryThe WanderessSummer RainLovers SadnessLife ChangeBlushQuotes From PoemsDreameressWildflowerWayfaringWet HairChildlikenessNocturneStorybookDesiring SomeoneParisian ReverieSexual QuoteShort Love QuoteSummer Showers
Author:Roman Payne
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“Wherever you go in the next catastrophé Be it sickroom, or prison, or cemet’ry Do not fear that your stay will be solit’ry Countless souls share your fate, you’ll have company!”

DeathFearFreedomFateTroubleLonelinessFriendsPoemSolitudeOptimismLuckPrisonIllnessOptimisticIsolationSicknessRhyme21st CenturyOptimistFarewellTogethernessCemeteryBad LuckRomanLoneliness QuotesCamaraderieRhymingRoman PayneWanderessCatastrophesStanzaAesthete PressBasement TrainsFrench AmericanIll FateModeroom
Book:The Basement Trains: A 21st Century Poem
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“This was how it was with travel: one city gives you gifts, another robs you. One gives you the heart’s affections, the other destroys your soul. Cities and countries are as alive, as feeling, as fickle and uncertain as people. Their degrees of love and devotion are as varying as with any human relation. Just as one is good, another is bad.”

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Book:Cities & Countries
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“I ran across an excerpt today (in English translation) of some dialogue/narration from the modern popular writer, Paulo Coelho in his book: Aleph.(Note: bracketed text is mine.)... 'I spoke to three scholars,' [the character says 'at last.'] ...two of them said that, after death, the [sic (misprint, fault of the publisher)] just go to Paradise. The third one, though, told me to consult some verses from the Koran. [end quote]' ...I can see that he's excited. [narrator]' ...Now I have many positive things to say about Coelho: He is respectable, inspiring as a man, a truth-seeker, and an appealing writer; but one should hesitate to call him a 'literary' writer based on this quote. A 'literary' author knows that a character's excitement should be 'shown' in his or her dialogue and not in the narrator's commentary on it. Advice for Coelho: Remove the 'I can see that he's excited' sentence and show his excitement in the phrasing of his quote.(Now, in defense of Coelho, I am firmly of the opinion, having myself written plenty of prose that is flawed, that a novelist should be forgiven for slipping here and there.)Lastly, it appears that a belief in reincarnation is of great interest to Mr. Coelho ... Just think! He is a man who has achieved, (as Leonard Cohen would call it), 'a remote human possibility.' He has won lots of fame and tons of money. And yet, how his preoccupation with reincarnation—none other than an interest in being born again as somebody else—suggests that he is not happy!”

LifeWritingInspirationTruthHappinessInspiringEducationInspirational LifeBirthFameInspirational AttitudeFortuneFaultsIslamEducationalHappyDialogueExcitementParadiseIslamicLife And DeathImperfectionInspiring QuotesPublishingReincarnationGrammarWriting AdviceCritiqueNovelsBorn AgainLiterature QuotesAuthorshipFamous AuthorsIslamic QuotesRomanLiterary CriticismHuman PotentialWriting CraftCraftsmanshipCharacterizationCraftRoman PayneWriting From The HeartNovelistNarrationHappiness Positive OutlookPaulo CoelhoPayneLiterary TheoryFame And FortuneAdvice For WritersKoranHumanenessSentence StructureCoelhoLeonard CohenAlephArt Of LiteraturePhrasingCohenWriting ArtWriting As A ProfessionCritique Of ModernityGrammaticalWriting And Art
Author:Roman Payne
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“It is growing cold. Winter is putting footsteps in the meadow. What whiteness boasts that sun that comes into this wood! One would say milk-colored maidens are dancing on the petals of orchids. How coldly burns our sun! One would say its rays of light are shards of snow, one imagines the sun lives upon a snow crested peak on this day. One would say she is a woman who wears a gown of winter frost that blinds the eyes. Helplessness has weakened me. Wandering has wearied my legs.”

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Author:Roman Payne
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“The season was waning fast Our nights were growing cold at last I took her to bed with silk and song, 'Lay still, my love, I won’t be long; I must prepare my body for passion.' 'O, your body you give, but all else you ration.' 'It is because of these dreams of a sylvan scene: A bleeding nymph to leave me serene... I have dreams of a trembling wench.' 'You have dreams,' she said, 'that cannot be quenched.' 'Our passion,' said I, 'should never be feared; As our longing for love can never be cured. Our want is our way and our way is our will, We have the love, my love, that no one can kill.' 'If night is your love, then in dreams you’ll fulfill... This love, our love, that no one can kill.' Yet want is my way, and my way is my will, Thus I killed my love with a sleeping pill.”

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Author:Roman Payne
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“After joyfully working each morning, I would leave off around midday to challenge myself to a footrace. Speeding along the sunny paths of the Jardin du Luxembourg, ideas would breed like aphids in my head—for creative invention is easy and sublime when air cycles quickly through the lungs and the body is busy at noble tasks.”

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Book:Rooftop Soliloquy
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“Did I live the spring I’d sought? It’s true in joy, I walked along, took part in dance, and sang the song. and never tried to bind an hour to my borrowed garden bower; nor did I once entreat a day to slumber at my feet. Yet days aren’t lulled by lyric song, like morning birds they pass along, o’er crests of trees, to none belong; o’er crests of trees of drying dew, their larking flight, my hands, eschew Thus I’ll say it once and true… From all that I saw, and everywhere I wandered, I learned that time cannot be spent, It only can be squandered.”

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Book:Rooftop Soliloquy
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“English: Ô, take this eager dance you fool, don’t brandish your stick at me. I have several reasons to travel on, on to the endless sea: I have lost my love. I’ve drunk my purse. My girl has gone, and left me rags to sleep upon. These old man’s gloves conceal the hands with which I’ve killed but one! Francais: Idiot, prends cette danse ardente, au lieu de tendre ton bâton. J'en ai des raisons de voyager encore sur la mer infinie: J'ai perdu l'amour et j'ai bu ma bourse. Ma belle m'a quitté, j'ai ses haillons pour m'abriter. Mes gants de vieillard cachent les mains d'un fameux assassin!”

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Book:The Basement Trains: A 21st Century Poem
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“I likened her to the slender PSYCHÉ and judged that the perfection of her face ennobled everything unclean around her: The dusty hems of her bunched-up skirt, the worn straps of her nightshirt; the blackened soles of her bare feet [...] All this and the pungent air! Ô this night, sweet pungent night! "HÉBÉ" may come but a season. But this girl's season would know a hot spring and an Indian summer.”

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Author:Roman Payne
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“What a face this girl possessed!—could I not gaze at it every day I would need to recreate it through painting, sculpture, or fatherhood until a second such face is born. Her face, at once innocent and feral, soft and wild! Her mouth voluptuous. Eyes deep as oceans, her eyes as wide as planets. I likened her to the slender Psyché and judged that the perfection of her face ennobled everything unclean around her: the dusty hems of her bunched-up skirt, the worn straps of her nightshirt; the blackened soles of her tiny bare feet, the coal-stained balcony bricks upon which she sat, and that dusty wrought-ironwork that framed her perch. All this and the pungent air!—almost foul, with so many odors. Ô, that and the spicy night! …Pungency, spice, filth and night, dust and light; all things dark did blossom in sight; flower and bloom, the night has its pearl too—the moon! And once a month it will make the face of this tender girl bloom.”

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Author:Roman Payne
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“I just wish moments weren’t so fleeting!' Isaac called to the man on the roof, 'They pass so quickly!' 'Fleeting?!' responded the tilling man, 'Moments? They pass quickly?! . . . Why, once a man is finished growing, he still has twenty years of youth. After that, he has twenty years of middle age. Then, unless misfortune strikes, nature gives him twenty thoughtful years of old age. Why do you call that quickly?' And with that, the tilling man wiped his sweaty brow and continued tilling; and the dejected Isaac continued wandering. 'Stupid fool!' Isaac muttered quietly to himself as soon as he was far enough away not to be heard.”

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Book:Hope and Despair
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