Anne Sexton Quotes - Page 2

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It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.

Anne Sexton

Death, Daughter, Fathers Day

"A Small Journal" by Anne Sexton, 1974.

56 Copy quote
Rocks crumble, make new forms,
oceans move the continents,
mountains rise up and down like ghosts
yet all is natural, all is change.

Anne Sexton

Change, Nature, Ocean

Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

11 Copy quote
...became a woman who learned her own skin and dug into her soul and found it full.

Anne Sexton

Soul, Skins, Found

26 Copy quote
All I wanted was a little piece of life, to be married, to have children.... I was trying my damnedest to lead a conventional life, for that was how I was brought up, and it was what my husband wanted of me. But one can't build little white picket fences to keep the nightmares out.

Anne Sexton

Children, Husband, White

36 Copy quote
I'm hunting for the truth. It might be a kind of poetic truth, and not just a factual one, because behind everything that happens to you, there is another truth, a secret life.

Anne Sexton

Hunting, Secret, Might

19 Copy quote
Saints have no moderation, nor do poets, just exuberance.

Anne Sexton

Saint, Moderation, Poet

Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

89 Copy quote
My ideas are a curse.
They spring from a radical discontent
with the awful order of things.
I play clown. I play carpenter. I play nurse.
I play witch.

Anne Sexton

Inspirational, Spring, Order

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

10 Copy quote
I am younger each year at the first snow. When I see it, suddenly, in the air, all little and white and moving;
then I am in love again and very young and I believe everything.

Anne Sexton

Believe, Moving, Air

Anne Sexton, Linda Gray Sexton, Lois Ames (2004). “Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters”, p.45, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

28 Copy quote
I'm the crazy one who thinks that words reach people.

Anne Sexton

Crazy, Thinking, People

Anne Sexton, Linda Gray Sexton, Lois Ames (2004). “Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters”, p.48, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

20 Copy quote
When they turn the sun
on again I'll plant children
under it, I'll light up my soul
with a match and let it sing.

Anne Sexton

Hope, Children, Light

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

5 Copy quote
Cinderella and the prince
lived, they say, happily ever after,
like two dolls in a museum case
never bothered by diapers or dust,
never arguing over the timing of an egg,
never telling the same story twice.

Anne Sexton

Happiness, Marriage, Museums

Anne Sexton (2001). “Transformations”, p.56, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

28 Copy quote
Our eyes are full of terrible confessions.

Anne Sexton

Eye, Confession, Terrible

Anne Sexton, Linda Gray Sexton, Lois Ames (2004). “Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters”, p.86, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

16 Copy quote
Only my books anoint me, and a few friends, those who reach into my veins.

Anne Sexton

Book, Veins, Few Friends

Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

29 Copy quote
I am torn in two
but I will conquer myself.

Anne Sexton

Self, Two, Conquer

Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

16 Copy quote
When I'm writing, I know I'm doing the thing I was born to do.

Anne Sexton

Inspirational, Writing, Born

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The snow has quietness in it; no songs, no smells, no shouts or traffic. When I speak my own voice shocks me.

Anne Sexton

Song, Voice, Smell

Anne Sexton (1964). “Selected poems”

18 Copy quote
Those moments before a poem comes, when the heightened awareness comes over you, and you realize a poem is buried there somewhere, you prepare yourself. I run around, you know, kind of skipping around the house, marvelous elation. It’s as though I could fly.

Anne Sexton

Running, House, Over You

12 Copy quote
We are America.
We are the coffin fillers.
We are the grocers of death.
We pack them in crates like cauliflowers.

Anne Sexton

America, United States, Coffins

Anne Sexton, “The Firebombers”

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Images are the heart of poetry ... You're not a poet without imagery.

Anne Sexton

Heart, Poet, Imagery

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... a starving man doesn't ask what the meal is.

Anne Sexton

Men, Meals, Hunger

Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

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I am stuffing your mouth with your promises and watching you vomit them out upon my face.

Anne Sexton

Truth, Promise, Mouths

Anne Sexton (1976). “45 Mercy Street”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

16 Copy quote
Maybe, although my heart
is a kitten of butter,
I am blowing it up like a zeppelin.

Anne Sexton

Heart, Zeppelins, Blowing It

Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

5 Copy quote
Let God be some tribal female who is known but forbidden.

Anne Sexton

God, Letting Go, Female

Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.82, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

24 Copy quote
The future is a fog that is still hanging out over the sea, a boat that floats home or does not.

Anne Sexton

Home, Fog, Sea

Anne Sexton, Linda Gray Sexton, Lois Ames (2004). “Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters”, p.41, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

11 Copy quote
I try to take care
and be gentle to them.
Words and eggs must be handled with care.
Once broken they are impossible things to repair.

Anne Sexton

Impossible Things, Eggs, Broken

Anne Sexton (1975). “The Awful Rowing Toward God”, Boston : Houghton Mifflin

26 Copy quote

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Born: November 9, 1928
Died: October 4, 1974
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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