Anne Sexton Quotes - Page 13

Quotes about:

• The Saints come,
  as human as a mouth,
  with a bag of God in their backs,
  like a hunchback,
  they come,
  they come marching in.

  Anne Sexton

  Saint, Bags, Mouths

  4 Copy quote

• Our checks are pale. Our wallets are invalids.
  Past due, past due, is what our bills are saying
  and yet we kiss in every corner, scuffing the dust
  and the cat. Love rises like bread as we go bust.

  Anne Sexton

  Cat, Kissing, Past

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  5 Copy quote

• Today is made of yesterday, each time I steal
  toward rites I do not know, waiting for the lost
  ingredient, as if salt or money or even lust
  would keep us calm and prove us whole at last.

  Anne Sexton

  Yesterday, Waiting, Lust

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.25, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

• Jewels! Today each twig is important,
  each ring, each infection, each form
  is all that the gods must have meant.

  Anne Sexton

  Nature, Jewels, Important

  4 Copy quote

• I want to kiss God on His nose and watch Him sneeze
  and so do you.
  Not out of disrespect.
  Out of pique.
  Out of a man-to-man thing.

  Anne Sexton

  God, Jesus, Kissing

  4 Copy quote

• Please God, we're all right here. Please leave us alone.
  Don't send death in his fat red suit and his ho-ho baritone.

  Anne Sexton

  God, Contentment, Red

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• I burn the way money burns.

  Anne Sexton

  Way

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.124, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  5 Copy quote

• I put the gold star up in the front window
  beside the flag. Alterations is what I know
  and what I did: hems, gussets and seams.

  Anne Sexton

  Stars, Work, Gold

  Anne Sexton (1964). “Selected poems”

  4 Copy quote

• I, in my brand new body,
  which was not a woman's yet,
  told the stars my questions
  and thought God could really see
  the heat and the painted light,
  elbows, knees, dreams, goodnight.

  Anne Sexton

  Dream, Stars, Light

  Anne Sexton, Linda Gray Sexton, Lois Ames (2004). “Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters”, p.2, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• Despite my asbestos gloves,
  the cough is filling me with black,
  and a red powder seeps through my veins.

  Anne Sexton

  Fire, Black, Asbestos

  Anne Sexton, “Love Letter Written In A Burning BuILDIng”

  5 Copy quote

• Women tell time by the body. They are like clocks. They are always fastened to the earth, listening for its small animal noises.

  Anne Sexton

  Time, Animal, Listening

  5 Copy quote

• There once was a miller with a daughter as lovely as a grape. He told the king that she could spin gold out of common straw. The king summoned the girl and locked her in a room full of straw and told her to spin it into gold or she would die like a criminal. Poor grape with no one to pick. Luscious and round and sleek. Poor thing. To die and never see Brooklyn. (Rumpelstiltskin)

  Anne Sexton

  Girl, Daughter, Kings

  Anne Sexton (2001). “Transformations”, p.18, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• I am tearing the feathers out of the pillows,
  waiting, waiting for Daddy to come home
  and stuff me so full of our infected child
  that I turn invisible, but married,
  at last.

  Anne Sexton

  Marriage, Children, Home

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.254, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  7 Copy quote

• My husband sings Baa Baa black sheep and we pretend
  that all's certain and good, that the marriage won't end.

  Anne Sexton

  Marriage, Husband, Divorce

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• the marriage twists, holds firm, a sailor's knot.

  Anne Sexton

  Marriage, Twists, Sailor

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• Look to your heart that flutters in and out like a moth. God is not indifferent to your need. You have a thousand prayers but God has one.

  Anne Sexton

  Prayer, Heart, Needs

  9 Copy quote

• Here in the hospital, I say,that is not my body, not my body.I am not here for the doctorsto read like a recipe.

  Anne Sexton

  Body, Recipes, Hospitals

  Anne Sexton, “August 17th”

  4 Copy quote

• You cutting the lawn, fixing the machines,
  all this leprous day and then more vodka,
  more soda and the pond forgiving our bodies,
  the pond sucking out the throb.

  Anne Sexton

  Cutting, Forgiving, Ponds

  Anne Sexton (1974). “The death notebooks”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• Blue eyes wash off sometimes.

  Anne Sexton

  Eye, Blue, Blue Eyes

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  7 Copy quote

• bike downtown, stick out tongues at the Catholics.
  Or form a Piss Club where we all go
  in the bushes and peek at each other's sex.

  Anne Sexton

  Sex, Games, Childhood

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• unless I can shake myself free of my dog, my flag,
  of my desk, my mind, I find life a bit of a drag.
  Not always, mind you. Usually I'm like my frying pan
  useful, graceful, sturdy and with no caper, no plan.

  Anne Sexton

  Dog, Boredom, Mind

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.263, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

• I'll
  Vacuum up my stale hair, I'll
  pay all my neighbors' bad debts, I'll
  write a poem called Yellow and put
  my lips down to drink it up.

  Anne Sexton

  Hope, Motivation, Writing

  Anne Sexton (1978). “Words for Dr. Y.: uncollected poems with three stories”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

  4 Copy quote

• I wonder if the artist ever lives his life--he is so busy recreating it.

  Anne Sexton

  Artist, Wonder, Busy

  Anne Sexton, Webster's II Dictionaries, Lois Ames (1979). “Anne Sexton: A Self Portrait in Letters”, Mariner Books

  4 Copy quote

• Come, my pretender, my fritter,
  my bubbler, my chicken biddy!
  Oh succulent one,
  it is but one turn in the road
  and I would be a cannibal!

  Anne Sexton

  Would Be, Eating, Chickens

  24 Copy quote

• I remember the stink of the liverwurst.
  How I was put on a platter and laid
  between the mayonnaise and the bacon.
  The rhythm of the refrigerator
  had been disturbed.

  Anne Sexton

  Mayonnaise, Remember, Eating

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.205, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  8 Copy quote

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