155 Quotes by Theodore Roethke

You must believe: a poem is a holy thing – a good poem, that is. The poem, even a short time after being written, seems no miracle; unwritten, it seems something beyond the capacity of the gods.

Pain wanders through my bones like a lost fire.

What’s important? That which is dug out of books, or out of the guts?

I can’t go on flying apart just for those who want the benefit of a few verbal kicks. My God, do you know what poems like that cost? They’re not written vicariously: they come out of actual suffering, real madness.

Civilization is over-rated, but there isn’t much else.

Brooding on God, I may become a man.

What’s freedom for? To know eternity.

I fear those shadows most that start from my own feet.

Dreams drain the spirit if we dream too long.