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Quote by May Sarton

“I write poems about relationships, love relationships, and I'm not able to do that all the time. I could go two years without writing poems, and then write a dozen. Having a novel to work on, with the intricate puzzle of character and plot to work out, is satisfying for the time there is no poetry.”

Quote by May Sarton

Author

American poet, born on May 3, 1912, and died on July 16, 1995. Known for her profound psychological insights and delicate portrayals of natural landscapes, May Sarton's poetry has had a significant impact on contemporary poetry, earning her numerous literary awards. more

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Book:At Seventy: A Journal

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“The woman who needs to create works of art is born with a kind of psychic tension in her which drives her unmercifully to find a way to balance, to make herself whole. Every human being has this need: in the artist it is mandatory. Unable to fulfill it, he goes mad. But when the artist is a woman she fulfills it at the expense of herself as a woman.”

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Book:From May Sarton's well: writings of May Sarton

Source: From May Sarton's well: writings of May Sarton

“How unnatural the imposed view, imposed by a puritanical ethos, that passionate love belongs only to the young, that people are dead from the neck down by the time they are forty, and that any deep feeling, any passion after that age, is either ludicrous or revolting!”

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Book:Journal of a Solitude

Source: Journal of a Solitude

“I simply adore being alone - I find it a consuming thirst - and when that thirst is slaked, then I am happy.”

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Author:May Sarton

“The courtroom is a quiet place, Judge Roberts, where you park your political ideology, and you call the balls and you call the strikes.”

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“When it comes to the important things one is always alone.”

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Book:Journal of a Solitude

Source: Journal of a Solitude

“What we have not has made us what we are. / ... / What we are not drives us to consummation.”

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Author:May Sarton

“I have sometimes wondered also whether in people like me who come to the boil fast (soupe au lait, the French call this trait, like a milk soup that boils over) the tantrum is not a built-in safety valve against madness or illness. ... The fierce tension in me, when it is properly channeled, creates the good tension for work. But when it becomes unbalanced I am destructive. How to isolate that good tension is my problem these days. Or, put in another way, how to turn the heat down fast enough so the soup won't boil over!”

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“Failure would only be if you had somewhere stopped growing. As far as I can see the whole duty of the artist is to keep on growing.”

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Author:May Sarton

“I am furious at all the letters to answer, when all I want to do is think and write poems. ... I long for open time, with no obligations except toward the inner world and what is going on there.”

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Book:The Journals of May Sarton Volume One: Journal of a Solitude, Plant Dreaming Deep, and Recovering

Source: The Journals of May Sarton Volume One: Journal of a Solitude, Plant Dreaming Deep, and Recovering