Quote

I am who I am. A coincidence no less unthinkable than any other.

Wislawa Szymborska

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Wislawa Szymborska
Age: 88 †
Born: 1923
Born: July 2
Died: 2012
Died: February 1
Critic
Essayist
Literary Critic
Mechanic
Poet
Translator
Writer
Kornik
Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska
Szymborska
Unthinkable
Coincidence
Less

More quotes by Wislawa Szymborska

Image
Somewhere out there the world must have an end.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
I like being near the top of a mountain. One can't get lost here.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
Secret codes resound. Doubts and intentions come to light.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
No day copies yesterday, no two nights will teach what bliss is in precisely the same way, with precisely the same kisses.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
All is mine but nothing owned, nothing owned for memory, and mine only while I look.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
Out of every hundred people, those who always know better: fifty-two.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
I'm working on the world, revised, improved edition, featuring fun for fools blues for brooders, combs for bald pates, tricks for old dogs.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
I'd have to be really quick to describe clouds - a split second's enough for them to start being something else.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
Even the worst book can give us something to think about.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
Nothing's a gift, it's all on loan
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
This terrifying world is not devoid of charms, of the mornings that make waking up worthwhile.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
Four billion people on this earth, but my imagination is still the same. It's bad with large numbers. It's still taken by particularity. It flits in the dark like a flashlight, illuminating only random faces while all the rest go blindly by, never coming to mind and never really missed. . . . I can't tell you how much I pass over in silence.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
I'm fighting against the bad poet who is prone to using too many words.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
Even a graphomaniac is an extremely complicated person.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
I don't know the role I'm playing. I only know it's mine, non-convertible.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
In the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone's existence in this world.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
When I mention somebody, that doesn't necessarily mean that I identify with him, personally or poetically. I'm extremely happy when I encounter poets who are different than I am. The ones who have their own distinct poetics provide me with the greatest experiences.
Wislawa Szymborska
Image
Well, one is inspired by the whole of life, one's own and somebody else's. You know how sometimes you hear great music, and music is completely untranslatable into words, into any words. A certain tension that is born when one listens to music could aid you in expressing something absolutely different.
Wislawa Szymborska