31 Quotes by Gerald Stern

Lucky life isn't one long string of horrors and there are moments of peace, and pleasure, as I lie in between the blows.

Humor is not funny. Humor is something else. Funny is a joke, sometimes silly. Comedy is deep and connected to tragedy; comedy could be deeper than tragedy, in my view.

For the Christian mystics, detachment meant to leave attachment so that God could enter you and take over completely and you could climb the ladder to their heaven. Kind of crazy, but what the hell?

Bruce Smith is a tender master of music, and beautiful lines, and complex thoughts, and fascinating wild personal and cultural references.

I was ruined before I got started. I say ruined, but I could say blessed; I was too far gone to believe in it. And I’m shocked how generation after generation repeats the behavior.

I’ve been trying to come to terms with what I am and what I do and what I believe in. And I see that I’m not happy with – well, it’s almost as if being a poet is not enough for me. It’s too late for me to do more now. I did what I could in a small way. I did it as theater, too, to be honest.

The cave is a dark, shadowy place. It’s a place that’s very close and yet distant at the same time, and it’s a place of revelation and isolation. Your form, your body, your writing is your confinement.

If the Buddhist’s job is to be detached, I think that the artist’s job is to be both detached and attached.

If you don’t have a bed, or a dresser or a wall, or a book or a toy you are oppressed. An African American in a white world. A Jew in a Christian world. A gypsy. A Native American. A Chinese American. Let’s say, you were born deprived.