Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Sharon Olds

Quote by Sharon Olds

“Many poets write books. They'll tell you: Well, I've got my next book, but there are two poems I need to write, one about x, one about y. This is a wonder to me.”

Quote by Sharon Olds

Author

Sharon Olds
Sharon Olds

Sharon Olds is a renowned American contemporary poet, born on November 19, 1942. Her poetry is known for its straightforward and candid style, often exploring themes of love, family, and death through personal experiences. more

You May Also Like

“Poems come from ordinary experiences and objects, I think. Out of memory - a dress I lent my daughter on her way back to college; a newspaper photograph of war; a breast self-exam; the tooth fairy; Calvinist parents who beat up their children; a gesture of love; seeing oneself naked over age 50 in a set of bright hotel bathroom mirrors.”

“I am reminded, now, of Leonardo's advice to painters: You should fix your eyes, he says, on certain walls stained with damp. You will see in these the likenesses of divine landscapes, adorned with mountains, ruins, rocks, extensive plains; and you will see there battles and strange figures engaged in violent actions. For in such walls the same thing happens as in the sound of church bells, in whose reverberations you may find every word imaginable.”