22 Quotes by James Merrill

Our little partyGot under way as best it could. The twigsUnclenched, the greedy rosebuds caked with smut.The ill-knit creatures, now in huesOf sunstroke, mulberry, white of clown,Yellow of bile, bruise-blacks-and-blues,Stumped outward, waving matchstick arms,Colliding, poking, hurt, in tears

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

Free me, I pray, to go in search of joysUnembroidered by your high, soft voice,Along that stony path the senses pave.

Free me, I pray, to go in search of joys Unembroidered by your high, soft voice, Along that stony path the senses pave.

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.

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.

At college I'd seen my dead frog's limbs twitch under some applied stimulus or other - seen, but hadn't believed. Didn't dream of thinking beyond or around what I saw.

Before trying a novel I wrote a couple of plays.

The simplest science book is over my head.