Stevie Smith Quotes

Quotes about:

• I'm alive today, therefore I'm just as much a part of our time as everybody else. The times will just have to enlarge themselves to make room for me, won't they, and for everybody else.

  Stevie Smith

  Live For Today, Alive, Rooms

  52 Copy quote

• Life may be treacherous, but you can always depend on death.

  Stevie Smith

  May, Treacherous, Depends

  12 Copy quote

• The human creature is alone in his carapace. Poetry is a strong way out.

  Stevie Smith

  Strong, Way, Poetry Is

  12 Copy quote

• The sea was angry that day my friend, like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli.

  Stevie Smith

  Men, Sea, Trying

  12 Copy quote

• Why does my muse only speak when she is uhnhappy? She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy.

  Stevie Smith

  Unhappy, Doe, Speak

  10 Copy quote

• A great artist ... takes what he did not make and makes of it something that only he can make.

  Stevie Smith

  Artist, Great Art, Great Artist

  4 Copy quote

• I love people, but I love the thought and memory of them just as much.

  Stevie Smith

  Memories, People

  4 Copy quote

• If there wasn't death, I think you couldn't go on.

  Stevie Smith

  Death, Thinking, Goes On

  In 'Observer' 9 November 1969

  7 Copy quote

• Death's not a separation or alteration or parting; it's just a one-handled door.

  Stevie Smith

  Grief, Doors, Separation

  Stevie Smith (1937). “A Good Time was Had by All”

  4 Copy quote

• People who are always praising the past And especially the time of faith as best Ought to go and live in the Middle Ages And be burnt at the stake as witches and sages.

  Stevie Smith

  Past, People, Age

  'The Past' (1957)

  9 Copy quote

• Marriage I think For women Is the best of opiates. It kills the thoughts That think about the thoughts, It is the best of opiates. So said Maria. But too long in solitude she'd dwelt, And too long her thoughts had felt Their strength. So when the man drew near, Out popped her thoughts and covered him with fear. Poor Maria! Better that she had kept her thoughts on a chain, For now she's alone again and all in pain; She sighs for the man that went and the thoughts that stay To trouble her dreams by night and her dreams by day.

  Stevie Smith

  Dream, Pain, Night

  Stevie Smith (2015). “Collected Poems and Drawings of Stevie Smith”, p.707, Faber & Faber

  15 Copy quote

• All poetry has to do is to make a strong communication. All the poet has to do is listen. The poet is not an important fellow. There will also be another poet.

  Stevie Smith

  Strong, Communication, Important

  14 Copy quote

• The religion of Christianity Is mixed of sweetness and cruelty Reject this Sweetness, for she wears A smoky dress out of hell fires.

  Stevie Smith

  Fire, Dresses, Hell

  Arthur C. Rankin, Stevie Smith (1985). “The poetry of Stevie Smith, "little girl lost"”, Barnes & Noble Imports

  9 Copy quote

• A man may forgive many wrongs, but he cannot easily forgive anyone who makes it plain that his conversation is tedious.

  Stevie Smith

  Men, Forgiving, May

  8 Copy quote

• There are moments of despair that come sometimes, when night sets in and a white fog presses against the windows. Then our house changes its shape, rears up and becomes a place of despair. Then fear and rage run simply--and the thought of Death as a friend. This is the simplest of thoughts, that Death must come when we call, although he is a god.

  Stevie Smith

  Running, Night, Fog

  9 Copy quote

• This Englishwoman is so refined, She has no bosom and no behind.

  Stevie Smith

  Behinds, Refined, Bosoms

  "This Englishwoman" l. 1 (1937)

  4 Copy quote

• But one wants the idea of Death, you know, as something large and unknowable, something that allows a person to stretch himself out. Especially one wants it if one is tired. Or perhaps what one wants is simply a release from sensation, from all consciousness for ever.

  Stevie Smith

  Tired, Ideas, Want

  7 Copy quote

• Fourteen-year-old, why must you giggle and dote,
  Fourteen-year-old, why are you such a goat?
  I'm fourteen years old, that is the reason,
  I giggle and dote in season.

  Stevie Smith

  Years, Goats, Reason

  Stevie Smith (1988). “New Selected Poems of Stevie Smith”, p.36, New Directions Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• Not Waving but Drowning Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he's dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said. Oh, no no no, it was too cold always (Still the dead one lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life And not waving but drowning.

  Stevie Smith

  Heart, Men, Way

  "Not Waving but Drowning" l. 11 (1957)

  4 Copy quote

• I like food, I like stripping vegetables of their skins, I like to have a slim young parsnip under my knife.

  Stevie Smith

  Food, Vegetables, Knives

  6 Copy quote

• I'll have your heart, if not by gift my knife Shall carve it out. I'll have your heart, your life.

  Stevie Smith

  Heart, Knives, Ifs

  Stevie Smith, James MacGibbon (1983). “Collected Poems”, p.148, New Directions Publishing

  10 Copy quote

• Oh, no no no, it was too cold always (Still the dead one lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life And not waving but drowning.

  Stevie Smith

  Cold, Drowning, Moaning

  'Not Waving but Drowning' (1957)

  8 Copy quote

• Life in the [London] suburb is richer at the lower levels. At these levels the people are not self-conscious at all, they are at liberty to be as eccentric as they please, they do not know that they are eccentric.

  Stevie Smith

  Self, People, Liberty

  6 Copy quote

• I like to see cats in movement. A galloping cat is a fine sight. See it cross the road in a streak, cursed by the drivers of motor cars and buses, dodging the butcher's bicycle, coming safe to the kerb and bellying under its home gate.

  Stevie Smith

  Home, Cat, Sight

  8 Copy quote

• O happy dogs of England, Bark well at errand boys, If you lived anywhere else, You would not be allowed to make such an infernal noise.

  Stevie Smith

  Dog, Boys, Errands

  Stevie Smith, James MacGibbon (1983). “Collected Poems”, p.94, New Directions Publishing

  7 Copy quote

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