In life, there are no perfect affections.
About James Merrill
James Ingram Merrillwas an American poet. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1977 for Divine Comedies.
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More quotes from James Merrill
Strange about parents. We have such easy access to them and such daunting problems of communication.
American poet
Knowing some Greek helped defuse forbidding words – not that I counted much on using them. You’ll find only trace elements of this language in the poem.
American poet
Before trying a novel I wrote a couple of plays.
American poet
At college I’d seen my dead frog’s limbs twitch under some applied stimulus or other – seen, but hadn’t believed. Didn’t dream of thinking beyond or around what I saw.
American poet
I’d like to think the scientists need us – but do they? Did Newton need Blake?
American poet
Arthur Young’s Reflexive Universe – fascinating but too schematic to fit into my scheme. The most I could hope for was a sense of the vocabulary and some possible images.
American poet
He puts his right hand lightly on the cup, I put my left, leaving the right free to transcribe, and away we go. We get, oh, 500 to 600 words an hour. Better than gasoline.
American poet
And, as I have said, it’s made me think twice about the imagination. If the spirits aren’t external, how astonishing the mediums become! Victor Hugo said of his voices that they were like his own mental powers multiplied by five.
American poet
But those two plays left me on fresh terms with language. I didn’t always have to speak in my own voice.
American poet
In life, there are no perfect affections.
American poet
The simplest science book is over my head.
American poet