107 Quotes by Ted Hughes

It took the whole of Creation To produce my foot, my each feather: Now I hold Creation in my foot. Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly – I kill where I please because it is all mine. There is no sophistry in my body: My manners are tearing off heads – The allotment of death.

The world’s decay where the wind’s hands have passed, And my head, worn out with love, at rest In my hands, and my hands full of dust.

The real mystery is this strange need. Why can’t we just hide it and shut up? Why do we have to blab? Why do human beings need to confess?

Your journal pages. Your effort to cry words.

That night was nothing but getting to know how smooth your body is. The memory of it goes through me like brandy.

The only thing people regret is that they didn’t live boldy enough, that they didn’t invest enough heart, didn’t love enough. Nothing else really counts at all.

The Bush administration doesn’t particularly like public participation. It makes them look bad.

The difficult thing is not to pick up the information but to recognise it – to accept it into our consciousness. Most of us find it difficult to know what we are feeling about anything. In any situation it is almost impossible to know what is really happening to us. This is one of the penalties of being human and having a brain so swarming with interesting suggestions and ideas and self-distrust.