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Stephen Dunn Quotes

All Quotes Feelings Writing
And the words we find are always insufficient, like love, though they are often lovely and all we have.

And the words we find are always insufficient, like love, though they are often lovely and all we have.

Stephen Dunn (1995). “New and Selected Poems 1974-1994”, p.58, W. W. Norton & Company

I’ve had it with all stingy-hearted sons of bitches. A heart is to be spent.

Stephen Dunn (2010). “What Goes On: Selected and New Poems 1995-2009”, p.67, W. W. Norton & Company

Isn't there a curious elegance in how one moment passes into another?

Stephen Dunn (1999). “Riffs and Reciprocities: Prose Pairs”, p.44, W. W. Norton & Company

I will try to disappoint you better than anyone ever has.

Stephen Dunn (1990). “Between Angels”, p.164, W. W. Norton & Company

I’ll always deny that I kissed her. I was just whispering into her mouth.

Stephen Dunn (1998). “Loosestrife: Poems”, p.31, W. W. Norton & Company

There are always the simple events of your life that you might try to convert into legend.

Stephen Dunn (1995). “New and Selected Poems 1974-1994”, p.21, W. W. Norton & Company

Everything I can't see / is at least as real as what I can.

Stephen Dunn (2010). “Different Hours: Poems”, p.87, W. W. Norton & Company

All good poems are victories over something.

Stephen Dunn (2001). “Walking Light: Memoirs and Essays on Poetry”, p.86, BOA Editions, Ltd.

Oh abstractions are just abstract until they have an ache in them.

Stephen Dunn (1990). “Between Angels”, p.142, W. W. Norton & Company

I love what's left after love has been tested.

Stephen Dunn (1999). “Riffs and Reciprocities: Prose Pairs”, p.100, W. W. Norton & Company

Better to be furious at one thing, become radiant with purpose. Better to love links and rhythms than all-embracing answers.

Stephen Dunn (1999). “Riffs and Reciprocities: Prose Pairs”, p.111, W. W. Norton & Company

Now and again I feel the astonishment of being alive like this, in this body.

Stephen Dunn (1995). “New and Selected Poems 1974-1994”, p.7, W. W. Norton & Company

I've tried to become someone else for a while, only to discover that he, too, was me.

Stephen Dunn (2013). “Here and Now: Poems”, p.86, W. W. Norton & Company

Originality, of course, is what occurs when something new arises out of what's already been done.

Stephen Dunn (2001). “Walking Light: Memoirs and Essays on Poetry”, p.2, BOA Editions, Ltd.