175 Quotes by Marianne Moore

So wary as to disappear for centuries and reappear but never caught, the unicorn has been preserved by an unmatched device wrought like the work of expert blacksmiths ...

that which is impossible to force, it is impossible to hinder.

Poetry, that is to say the poetic, is a primal necessity.

To wear the arctic fox you have to kill it.

You are not male nor female, but a plan deep-set within the heart of man.

When one is frank, one's very presence is a compliment.

Blessed the geniuses who know / that egomania is not a duty.

It is in general true that in order to create works of art one has to have leisure. On the other hand I think that one needs to experience resistance in a practical sense, and even that which is poignant to bring out what makes easy reading for others. Too much deprivation of course, means death.

One detects creative power by its capacity to conquer one's detachment.