126 Quotes by John Ashbery

The music brought us what it seemed / We had long desired, but in a form / so rarefied there was no emptiness of sensation

until only infinity remained of beauty

A little bunny or some kind of ferret was probablythere too, and bore witness as only rodents can.

Walter Pater said that all the arts aspire to the condition of music, but I’ve always felt that music aspires to the condition of words.

So one can lose a good ideaby not writing it down, yet by losing it one can have it: it nourishes other asidesit knows nothing of, would not recognize itself in, yet when the negotiationsare terminated, speaks in the acts of that progenitor, and doesrecognize itself, is grateful for not having done so earlier.

Darkness fell like a wet sponge.

Some day we will tryTo do as many things as are possibleAnd perhaps we shall succeed at a handfulOf them, but this will not have anythingTo do with what is promised today, ourLandscape sweeping out from us to disappearOn the horizon.

I tried each thing, only some were immortal and free.

Ambiguity supposes eventual resolution of itself whereas certitude implies further ambiguity.