158 Quotes by William Carlos Williams

If it ain't a pleasure, it ain't a poem.

beauty’ is related not to ‘loveliness’ but to a state in which reality plays a part.

The business of love is cruelty which,by our wills, we transform to live together.

Danse Russe If I when my wife is sleeping and the baby and Kathleen are sleeping and the sun is a flame-white disc in silken mists above shining trees,-- if I in my north room dance naked, grotesquely before my mirror waving my shirt round my head and singing softly to myself: "I am lonely, lonely. I was born to be lonely, I am best so!" If I admire my arms, my face, my shoulders, flanks, buttocks against the yellow drawn shades,-- Who shall say I am not the happy genius of my household?

I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.

For the beginning is assuredlythe end- since we know nothing, pureand simple, beyondour own complexities.

Vast and grey, the skyis a simulacrumto all but him whose daysare vast and grey, and―In the tall, dried grassesa goat stirswith nozzle searching the ground.―my head is in the airbut who am I . . ?And amazed my heart leaps at the thought of lovevast and greyyearning silently over me.

All women are not Helen, I know that, but have Helen in their hearts.

Hold back the edges of your gown, Ladies, we are going through hell.