Quotes from Marianne Moore

Why an inordinate interest in animals and athletes? They are subjects for art and exemplars of it, are they not? minding their own business. Pangolins, hornbills, pitchers, catchers, do not pry or prey—or prolong the conversation; do not make us self-conscious; look their best when caring least.

Ecstasy affordsthe occasion and expediency determines the form.

The world's an orphans' home. Shallwe never have peace without sorrow?without pleas of the dying forhelp that won't come. Oquiet form upon the dust, I cannotlook and yet I must.

I am troubled, I'm dissatisfied, I'm Irish.

I inwardly did nothing.O Iscariot-like crime!

We don't like flowers that donot wilt; they must die, and nineshe-camel hairs aid memory.

What sapwent through that little threadto make the cherry red!

Camels are snobbishand sheep, unintelligent;water buffaloes, neurasthenic—even murderous.Reindeer seem over-serious.

Of the crow-blue mussel shells, one keepsadjusting the ash heaps;opening and shutting itself likeaninjured fan.

Originality is... a by-product of sincerity.

Another armored animal—scalelapping scale with spruce cone regularity until theyform the uninterrupted centraltail row!

"The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence;not in silence, but restraint."Nor was he insincere in saying, "Make my house your inn."Inns are not residences.

It is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing.

What is our innocence,what is our guilt? All arenaked, none is safe.

They say there is a sweeter airwhere it was made, than we have here.

There is a great amount of poetry in unconscious fastidiousness.

My father used to say,"Superior people never make long visits,have to be shown Longfellow's graveor the glass flowers at Harvard."

Poetry is all nouns and verbs.

I see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which to put it.

Nor till the poets among us can be"literalists ofthe imagination"—aboveinsolence and triviality and can presentfor inspection, "imaginary gardens with realtoads in them," shall we have it.

The power of the visibleis the invisible.

Bedizened or starknaked, man, the self, the being we call human,writingmaster to this world.

As contagion of sickness makes sickness, contagion of trust can make trust.

Imaginary gardens with real toads in them.