James Merrill Quotes

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James Merrill

Profession : Poet

Birth : March 3, 1926

And, as I have said, it's made me think twice about the imagination. If the spirits aren't external, how astonishing the mediums become! Victor Hugo said of his voices that they were like his own mental powers multiplied by five.

James Merrill

Strange about parents. We have such easy access to them and such daunting problems of communication.

James Merrill

I'd like to think the scientists need us - but do they? Did Newton need Blake?

James Merrill

He puts his right hand lightly on the cup, I put my left, leaving the right free to transcribe, and away we go. We get, oh, 500 to 600 words an hour. Better than gasoline.

James Merrill

Arthur Young's Reflexive Universe - fascinating but too schematic to fit into my scheme. The most I could hope for was a sense of the vocabulary and some possible images.

James Merrill

Before trying a novel I wrote a couple of plays.

James Merrill

But those two plays left me on fresh terms with language. I didn't always have to speak in my own voice.

James Merrill

In life, there are no perfect affections.

James Merrill

Knowing some Greek helped defuse forbidding words - not that I counted much on using them. You'll find only trace elements of this language in the poem.

James Merrill

The simplest science book is over my head.

James Merrill