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And at least in poetry you should feel free to lie. That is, not to lie, but to imagine what you want, to follow the direction of the poem.

Mark Strand

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Mark Strand
Age: 80 †
Born: 1934
Born: April 11
Died: 2014
Died: November 29
Editor
Poet
Translator
Writer
Imagine
Lying
Free
Poem
Feel
Direction
Feels
Follow
Poetry
Least
Imagination

More quotes by Mark Strand

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...In another time, What cannot be seen will define us, and we shall be prompted To say that language is error, and all things are wronged By representation. The self, we shall say, can never be Seen with a disguise, and never be seen without one.
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Even this late it happens: the coming of love, the coming of light.
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I am not concerned with truth, nor with conventional notions of what is beautiful.
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When we walk in the sun our shadows are like barges of silence.
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I have been eating poetry.
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I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality.
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We are reading the story of our lives As though we were in it As though we had written it.
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We’re only here for a short while. And I think it’s such a lucky accident, having been born, that we’re almost obliged to pay attention.
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I don't really think it will make much difference to me when I'm dead whether I'm read or not . . . just as whether I'm dead or not won't mean much to me when I'm dead.
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Life makes writing poetry necessary to prove I really was paying attention.
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Pain is filtered in a poem so that it becomes finally, in the end, pleasure.
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Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry.
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I believe that all poetry is formal in that it exists within limits, limits that are either inherited by tradition or limits that language itself imposes.
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It's very hard to write humor.
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It came to my house. It sat on my shoulders. Your shadow is yours. I told it so. I said it was yours. I have carried it with me too long. I give it back.
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No voice comes from outer space, from the folds of dust and carpets of wind to tell us that this is the way it was meant to happen, that if only we knew how long the ruins would last we would never complain.
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Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.
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I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream.
Mark Strand
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I haven’t met God and I haven’t been to heaven, so I’m skeptical.
Mark Strand
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The future is always beginning now.
Mark Strand