We are only midway through the central verse of our youth when we see ourselves begin to blacken. … We had been seduced into thinking that we were immortal and suddenly the affair is over.
ANNE CARSONRelated Topics
Anand Thakur
We are only midway through the central verse of our youth when we see ourselves begin to blacken. … We had been seduced into thinking that we were immortal and suddenly the affair is over.
ANNE CARSONNo one will ever make necessity not happen.
ANNE CARSONReality is a sound, you have to tune in to it not just keep yelling.
ANNE CARSONMaking is always a slightly hopeful thing because once you’ve made something, it’ll – the world will be different.
ANNE CARSONThere is no person without a world.
ANNE CARSONWhen I began to be published, people got the idea that I should ‘teach writing,’ which I have no idea how to do and don’t really believe in.
ANNE CARSONA man moves through time. It means nothing except that, like a harpoon, once thrown he will arrive.
ANNE CARSONHe came after Homer and before Gertrude Stein, a difficult interval for a poet.
ANNE CARSONDesire is no light thing.
ANNE CARSONWe’re talking about the struggle to drag a thought over from the mush of the unconscious into some kind of grammar, syntax, human sense; every attempt means starting over with language. Starting over with accuracy.
ANNE CARSONMaybe I could have been good as a drawer if I had done it as much as I did writing, but it’s more scary to draw. It’s more revealing. You can’t disguise yourself in drawing.
ANNE CARSONDo you remember when they taught cursive in schools? I think they don’t anymore. But I still enjoy it – just the physical act and all the – the whole business of making a thing out of language.
ANNE CARSONPoetry – poiesis means a thing made.
ANNE CARSONMy religion makes no sense and does not help me therefore I pursue it.
ANNE CARSONTime isn’t made of anything. It is an abstraction. Just a meaning that we impose upon motion.
ANNE CARSONAt least half of your mind is always thinking, I’ll be leaving; this won’t last. It’s a good Buddhist attitude. If I were a Buddhist, this would be a great help. As it is, I’m just sad.
ANNE CARSON