Quotes from Eileen Myles

Certainly in the arts, in all genres, I think that men should step away. I think men should stop writing books. I think men should stop making movies or television. Say, for 50 to 100 years.

Older men get lovable, and older women get monstrous.

Time passes. That's for sure.

Part of the glamour of being a poet was always this long reach into the future. You knew you were managing time.

I love Canada, and I dated someone who was Canadian a few years ago, and she brought me into a deeper understanding of the greatness of the culture.

Women aren't physically afraid of men; women are genetically afraid of men. It's happened for such a long time.

It's a big statement if you use the word 'America' in the title of your poem.

The thing about not being historically a mainstream writer is that everyone feels like you're theirs: you're their friend.

Poetry from the bottom up is an act of selection: you kind of feel your way through the crowds of poems. The good ones came forward a long time ago, and the bad ones fell away.

In my family, I'm the middle of three, and I'm like a lot of middle children. I was one of those kids that floated from group to group. I liked being able to be included in all the groups - the bad kids, the smart kids.

The poet is like the earth's shadow. The sun moves, and the poet writes something down.

Having big audiences when you're on a book tour is like Valhalla if you're a person who used to sell Girl Scout cookies on the side. Because you want to give the reading that will sell the most books.

Weirdly, the past starts to be about something else. It becomes about style in a way that it wasn't about, and I don't mean writing style, but cultural style.

I wasn't afraid of being poor. I didn't want to live in a big house. I'm the perfect size for poetry. I can move around.

Lyndon Johnson, I know for a fact, was a great president. And I don't mean by that he was a great man.

People love discovering you. The thing about not being historically a mainstream writer is that everyone feels like you're theirs, you're their friend.

I really just love reading. It's my favorite thing, performing my poems live.

In Arlington, people would laugh at you if you tried to get people to look at your drawings or listen to your poetry. It was like you thought you were special.

When somebody's in love with you, they think it's amazing you've written them a poem, and when they don't love you anymore, they hate those poems. They wish those poems would go away.

Poetry and novels are lists of our devotions. We love the feel of making the marks as the feelings are rising and falling.

I've had a lifelong waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop feeling when something good happens.

With Instagram, you're captioning a moment. Twitter is the caption without the image. Even if it's there, the words come first.

Dogs are a companion species. It's about time - you have an animal for about 15, 16 years, a generation. That time holds so much. You might have had five or six relationships with human beings but one dog.

I've grown to love Barack Obama. Hillary is no Bernie Sanders. But she's a politician, and she understands Congress. And I think with that kind of twisted beauty, she could lead our country.