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James Merrill Quotes

The day is breaking someone else's heart.

The day is breaking someone else's heart.

James Merrill
Heart, Breaking Someone
James Merrill (1982). “From the First Nine: Poems, 1946-1976”, New York : Atheneum

Strange about parents. We have such easy access to them and such daunting problems of communication.

James Merrill
Communication, Parent, Strange
James Ingram Merrill (2004). “Collected Prose”, Knopf

Class is classlessness.

James Merrill
Class

But those two plays left me on fresh terms with language. I didn't always have to speak in my own voice.

James Merrill
Air, Play, Two
James Ingram Merrill (2004). “Collected Prose”, Knopf

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.

James Merrill
Thinking, Voice, Imagination

In life, there are no perfect affections.

James Merrill
Life, Perfect, Inspire
James Ingram Merrill (2004). “Collected Prose”, Knopf

The simplest science book is over my head.

James Merrill
Book, Simplest, Science Books
James Ingram Merrill (2004). “Collected Prose”, Knopf

Before trying a novel I wrote a couple of plays.

James Merrill
Couple, Play, Trying

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.

James Merrill
Dream, College, Thinking
James Ingram Merrill (2004). “Collected Prose”, Knopf

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.

James Merrill
Vocabulary, Fit, Arthur
James Ingram Merrill (2004). “Collected Prose”, Knopf

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