Howard Nemerov Quotes

Quotes about:

• Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow's speed.

  Howard Nemerov

  Travel, Science, Journey

  Howard Nemerov (1981). “The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov”, p.345, University of Chicago Press

  63 Copy quote

• Absolute power corrupts absolutely; and if you surrender your personal responsibility to a government which promises to take care of you, they will only take care of themselves.

  Howard Nemerov

  Responsibility, Government, Promise

  12 Copy quote

• A teacher is a person who never says anything once.

  Howard Nemerov

  Teacher, Retirement, Say Anything

  Howard Nemerov (1993). “A Howard Nemerov Reader”, p.307, University of Missouri Press

  16 Copy quote

• Both poet and painter want to reach the silence behind the language, the silence within the language. Both painter and poet want their work to shine not only in daylight but (by whatever illusionist magic) from within.

  Howard Nemerov

  Science, Silence, Shining

  Howard Nemerov (1978). “Figures of thought: speculations on the meaning of poetry & other essays”

  5 Copy quote

• Writing is like the relationship with your bowels. First you can, then you can't. Finally, you must. Only then should you reach for the paper.

  Howard Nemerov

  Writing, Paper, Firsts

  9 Copy quote

• Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.

  Howard Nemerov

  Writing, Should, Knows

  11 Copy quote

• It may be said that poems are in one way like icebergs: only about a third of their bulk appears above the surface of the page.

  Howard Nemerov

  Literature, May, Pages

  Howard Nemerov (1978). “Figures of thought: speculations on the meaning of poetry & other essays”

  7 Copy quote

• The only way out is the way through, just as you cannot escape death except by dying. Being unable to write, you must examine in writing this being unable, which becomes for the present -henceforth?- the subject to which you are condemned.

  Howard Nemerov

  Writing, Dying, Way

  13 Copy quote

• Robert Frost had always said you mustn't think of the last line first, or it's only a fake poem, not a real one. I'm inclined to agree.

  Howard Nemerov

  Fake People, Real, Thinking

  9 Copy quote

• A lot happens by accident in poetry.

  Howard Nemerov

  Happens, Accidents

  7 Copy quote

• This Constitutional Republic called America is an historic aberration. Any honest student of history will note that the prevailing socio-economic system is feudalism, where a tiny minority control the vast majority of wealth, power, and resources. In doing so, they have absolute control over the 99% of the population. Power equals control.

  Howard Nemerov

  America, Majority, Population

  9 Copy quote

• When Robert Frost was alive, I was known as the other new England poet, which is to be barely known at all.

  Howard Nemerov

  Icy, Alive, Literature

  10 Copy quote

• Religion and science both profess peace (and the sincerity of the professors is not being doubted), but each always turns out to have a dominant part in any war that is going or contemplated.

  Howard Nemerov

  Religious, War, Science

  Howard Nemerov (1978). “Figures of thought: speculations on the meaning of poetry & other essays”

  4 Copy quote

• When modern writers gave up telling stories, they gave up the greatest thing we had.

  Howard Nemerov

  Stories, Literature, Modern

  4 Copy quote

• I liked the kid who wrote me that he had to do a term paper on a modern poet and he was doing me because, though they say you have to read poems twice, he found he could handle mine in one try.

  Howard Nemerov

  Kids, Term Paper, Trying

  7 Copy quote

• Shakespeare tells the same stories over and over in so many guises that it takes a long time before you notice.

  Howard Nemerov

  Long, Over You, Stories

  5 Copy quote

• [T]eaching has been for me an education (Lord knows what it has been for my students).

  Howard Nemerov

  Students, Lord, Knows

  8 Copy quote

• The secrets of success are a good wife and a steady job. My wife told me.

  Howard Nemerov

  Jobs, Wife, Secret

  8 Copy quote

• I think there's one thing which distinguishes our art - we don't consider. We don't think. We write a little verse because it comes to us.

  Howard Nemerov

  Art, Writing, Thinking

  6 Copy quote

• The spirit world doesn't admit to communicating with me, so it's fairly even.

  Howard Nemerov

  Literature, World, Spirit

  4 Copy quote

• When I was starting to write, the great influence was T.S. Eliot and after that William Butler Yeats.

  Howard Nemerov

  Writing, Literature, Yeats

  8 Copy quote

• I've thought of the last line of some poems for years and tried them out, It wouldn't work because the last line was much too beautiful for the poem.

  Howard Nemerov

  Beautiful, Hypnosis, Years

  4 Copy quote

• We think about sex obsessively except during the act, when our minds tend to wander.

  Howard Nemerov

  Sex, Thinking, Mind

  5 Copy quote

• Once in awhile you have a thought, and you rhyme it.

  Howard Nemerov

  Literature, Rhyming, Rhyme

  8 Copy quote

• Why are stamps adorned with kings and presidents? That we may lick their hinder parts and thump their heads.

  Howard Nemerov

  Kings, Power, President

  Howard Nemerov (1977). “The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov”, p.420, University of Chicago Press

  5 Copy quote

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