42 quotes
print by R. B. Kitaj (American, 1932-2007) (1984.133)
“Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.”
"Poetry makes nothing happen."
on Art
"The identification of fantasy is always an attempt to avoid one's own suffering: the identification of art is the sharing in the suffering of another."
"Every man carries with him through life a mirror, as unique and impossible to get rid of as his shadow."
on Identity
"Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about."
on Writing
"I know nothing, except what everyone knows - if there when Grace dances, I should dance."
on Knowledge
"Evil is unspectacular and always human,And shares our bed and eats at our own table ...."
on Philosophy
"Without art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without science, we should always worship false gods."
"A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us."
"The slogan of Hell: Eat or be eaten. The slogan of Heaven: Eat and be eaten."
"Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, the Self."
"We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and see our illusions die."
on Fear
"Language is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought; words will tell you things you never thought or felt before."
on Language
"Soft as the earth is mankind and both need to be altered."
"You shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart."
on Love
"A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language."
"We would rather be ruined than changedWe would rather die in our dreadThan climb the cross of the momentAnd let our illusions die."
"O stand, stand at the window As the tears scald and start;You shall love your crooked neighbour With your crooked heart."
"And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom."
on Freedom
"no poet can know what his poem is going to be like until he has written it."
"The way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in."
on Wisdom