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Quote by Sylvia Plath

“I am not a historian, but I find myself being more and more fascinated by history and now I find myself reading more and more about history. I am very interested in Napoleon, at the present: I'm very interested in battles, in wars, in Gallipoli, the First World War and so on, and I think that as I age I am becoming more and more historical. I certainly wasn't at all in my early twenties.”

Quote by Sylvia Plath

Author

American poet, novelist, and playwright. Her works are known for their profound emotion and unique style, and she is considered one of the most important female writers of the 20th century. more

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“I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have, but I must say I cannot sympathise with these cries from the heart that are informed by nothing except a needle or a knife, or whatever it is.”

Thinking Heart Cry Emotional Knives Needles Sensuous

Author:Sylvia Plath

“I believe that one should be able to control and manipulate experiences, even the most terrific, like madness, being tortured, this sort of experience, and one should be able to manipulate these experiences with an informed and an intelligent mini.”

Should Believe Able I Believe Madness Intelligent Manipulate Terrific

Author:Sylvia Plath

“I think that in poetry personal experience is very important, but certainly it shouldn't be a kind of shut-box and mirror looking, narcissistic experience. I believe it should be relevant, and relevant to the larger things, the bigger things such as Hiroshima and Dachau and so on.”

Thinking Should Believe Kind Important I Believe Bigger Mirrors Boxes Relevant Narcissistic Personal Experiences Hiroshima Dachau

Author:Sylvia Plath

“I feel that very strongly: having been an academic, having been tempted by the invitation to stay on to become a Ph.D., a professor, and all that, one side of me certainly does respect all disciplines, as long as they don't ossify.”

Feels Long Doe Sides Discipline Professors Very Strong Academic Tempted Invitations

Author:Sylvia Plath

“I do feel that now and I feel that this development of recording poems, of speaking poems at readings, of having records of poets, I think this is a wonderful thing. I'm very excited by it. In a sense, there's a return, isn't there, to the old role of the poet, which was to speak to a group of people, to come across.”

People Thinking Feels Reading Speak Roles Records Wonderful Groups Poet Development Return Excited Wonderful Things

Author:Sylvia Plath

“I always was interested in prose. As a teenager, I published short stories. And I always wanted to write the long short story, I wanted to write a novel. Now that I have attained, shall I say, a respectable age, and have had experiences, I feel much more interested in prose, in the novel. I feel that in a novel, for example, you can get in toothbrushes and all the paraphernalia that one finds in dally life, and I find this more difficult in poetry.”

Feels Writing Long Stories Age Wanted Difficult Novel Example Teenager Prose Short Story Respectable Toothbrushes

Author:Sylvia Plath

“Poetry, I feel, is a tyrannical discipline, you've got to go so far, so fast, in such a small space that you've just got to turn away all the peripherals.”

Feels Turns Space Discipline Small Spaces

Author:Sylvia Plath

“I find that in a novel I can get more of life, perhaps not such intense life, but certainly more of life than in poetry.”

I Can Novel Intense

Author:Sylvia Plath

“I would say everything should be able to come into a poem, but I can't put toothbrushes into a poem, I really can't!”

Should I Can Able Toothbrushes

Author:Sylvia Plath

“I must say what I admire most is the person who masters an area of practical experience, and can teach me something. I mean, my local midwife has taught me how to keep bees. Well, she can't understand anything I write. And I find myself liking her, may I say, more than most poets. And among my friends I find people who know all about boats or know all about certain sports, or how to cut somebody open and remove an organ. I'm fascinated by this mastery of the practical.”