"You know I don't really understand much of my poetry myself. Of course, I was convinced I understood it when I wrote it !"

Marianne Moore Literature See all quotes by Marianne Moore →

React to this quote

More by Marianne Moore

“Music should be directed by the ear, poetry by the imagination”

“I have been influenced by the Bible, Bach's music and contemporarily by Pound, Eliot, Stevens, Williams and Hopkins.”

“Poetry is: a classifying, a botanizing, a voracity of contemplation, a pleasure, an indulgence, an infatuation in which the actual is a deft benficence.”

“I don't consider In Distrust of Merits a poem. It's just a burst of feelings. It's emotion recorded, a 'haphazard form ' a protest.”

“Modern American Poetry: Marianne Moore”

“For me, a poem starts when a felicitious phrase springs to mind.”

Resonant Thoughts

"I'm not sure I ever 'got it' when it comes to how to live my life in a way that was original and free," reflected Steven Salt, a retired businessman. "Of course, like most men, I always believed I had…"

— Herb Goldberg

Psychology1937–2019

#mind

"When I write it’s more a process of listening. I don’t pretend that there is some spirit standing beside me that tells me things. More and more I’ve become convinced that the great treasure to possess…"

— P. L. Travers

Literature1899–1996

#knowledge

"I said to myself ‘I'm going to own this job. I'm going to make sure that I know this better than all of these guys and they're not gonna be able to push me around"

— Maria Bartiromo

Journalism1967

#knowledge

"Learners should be allowed to find their own levels and explore the paths leading there with as much and as little guidance as each particular case requires."

— Hans Freudenthal

Mathematics1905–1990

#knowledge