Quotes from Anne Carson

In later years this is the one memory he wishes would go away and not come back. And the reason he cannot bear her dying is not the loss of her (which is the future) but that dying puts the two of them (now) into this nakedness together that is unforgiveable. They do not forgive it. He turns away. This roaring air in his arms. She is released.

like a girl gone mad, in blood, in smoke, in a wedding of murder

Kreon: here are Kreon's verbs for today Adjudicate Legislate Scandalize Capitalize here are Kreon's nouns Men Reason Treason Death Ship of State Mine Chorus: "mine" isn't a noun Kreon: it is if you capitalize it

LIII. What is the holiness of conversation? It is to master death.

The moon makes a traveler hunger for something bitter in the world, what is it? I will vanish; others will come here, what is that? An old question.

No one will ever make necessity not happen.

Pilgrims were people glad to take off their clothing, which was on fire.

let's do something cheerful all your designs are about captivity, it depresses me. Geryon watched the top of Herakles' head and felt his limits returning. Nothing to say. He looked at this fact in mild surprise. Once in childhood his ice cream had been eaten by a dog. Just an empty con in a small dramatic red fist. Herakles stood up. No? Let's go then. On the way home they tried "Joy To The World" but were too tired. It seemed a long drive.

Jealousy is a dance in which everyone moves, for it is the instability of the emotional situation that preys upon a jealous lover's mind.

I loved him for his beauty. As I would again if he came near. Beauty convinces.

I am someone who did not die when I should have died.

Whenever I visit my mother I feel I am turning into Emily Brontë, my lonely life around me like a moor, my ungainly body stumping over the mud flats with a look of transformation that dies when I come into the kitchen door. What meat is it, Emily, we need?

A cold ship moves out of harbor somewhere way inside the wife and slides off toward the flat gray horizon, not a bird not a breath in sight.

Geryon closed his eyes and listened to engines vibrating deep in the moon-splashed canals of his brain.

I am something supernatural not exactly god, ghost, spirit, angel, principle or element – There is no term for it in English.

A paste of blue cloud untangled itself on the red sky over the harbour.

A gust of night pushed its way in the door and everyone inside wavered once like stalks in a field then resumed their talk.

Ray please I never lied to her. When need arose I may have used words that lied.

Would this day never end? His eye traveled to the clock at the front of the room and he fell into the pool of his favorite question.

Comparison makes you less interesting to yourself doesn't it. Your magic contracts your body putting forth no frill under another's gaze.

It had rained suddenly at suppertime, now sunset was startling drops at the window. Stale peace of old bedtimes filled the room. Love does not make me gentle or kind, thought Geryon as he and his mother eyed each other from opposite shores of the light.

his voice saying, You beauty. I can feel that beauty's heart beating inside mine as she presses into his arms in the high blue room–

It stung God. They say his spinal cord ran straight out of the sun.

What is a culture? A culture is what approves or disapproves of the actions in its midst. Yet how rare for approval to be unanimous.