Charles Simic citations

“Poetry: three mismatched shoes at the entrance of a dark alley.”

“Insomnia is an all-night travel agency with posters advertising faraway places.”

“Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all others were making ships.”

“If I believe in anything, it is in the dark night of the soul. Awe is my religion, and mystery is its church.”

“He who cannot howl will not find his pack.”

“I left parts of myself everywhere,
The way absent-minded people leave
Gloves and umbrellas
Whose colors are sad from dispensing so much bad luck”

“If the sky falls they shall have clouds for supper.”

“One writes because one has been touched by the yearning for and the despair of ever touching the Other.”

“For Emily Dickinson every philosophical idea was a potential lover. Metaphysics is the realm of eternal seduction of the spirit by ideas.”

“The stars know everything,
So we try to read their minds.
As distant as they are,
We choose to whisper in their presence.”

“Should some senator or congressman have a sudden attack of conscience and blurt something out, “dark money” brings them to their senses and reminds them that their job is to facilitate the transfer of public funds into the pockets of the few and to not ask too many questions.”

“It’s never been such a good time to be a crook. In what other country of laws does one enjoy so much freedom to defraud one’s government and fellow citizens without having to worry about cops showing at the door? Small-time crooks sooner or later end up in the slammer, but our big-time con artists, as we’ve come to learn, are now regarded as the untouchables, too well-heeled and powerful to lock up.”

“Widespread ignorance bordering on idiocy is our new national goal. … The ideal citizen of a politically corrupt state, such as the one we now have, is a gullible dolt unable to tell truth from bullshit. An educated, well-informed population, the kind that a functioning democracy requires, would be difficult to lie to, and could not be led by the nose by the various vested interests running amok in this country.”