277 Quotes by Anne Carson

As in childhood we live sweeping close to the sky and now, what dawn is this.

There is something about the way that Greek poets, say Aeschylus, use metaphor that really attracts me. I don’t think I can imitate it, but there’s a density to it that I think I’m always trying to push towards in English.

Repent means “the pain again.

I don’t know that we really think any thoughts; we think connections between thoughts. That’s where the mind moves, that’s what’s new, and the thoughts themselves have probably been there in my head or lots of other people’s heads for a long time.

You are a person in love with the impossible.

Do you have change for a dollar? Geryon heard Geryon say. No. Herakles stared straight at Geryon. But I’ll give you a quarter for free. Why would you do that? I believe in being gracious. Some hours later they were down at the railroad tracks standing close together by the switch lights. The huge night moved overhead scattering drops of itself. You’re cold, said Herakles suddenly, your hands are cold. Here. He put Geryon’s hands inside his shirt.

He lives in a small country of hope, which is his heart.

Maybe 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.

I don’t want to be a person. I want to be unbearable.