“I must always forget how one word is able to pick out another, to manner another, until I have got something I might have said… but did not.”

—  Anne Sexton

Source: The Complete Poems

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I must always forget how one word is able to pick out another, to manner another, until I have got something I might ha…" by Anne Sexton?
Anne Sexton photo
Anne Sexton 120
poet from the United States 1928–1974

Related quotes

Kazuo Ishiguro photo

“There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.”

Kazuo Ishiguro (1954) Japanese-born British author

On growing up in England, having left Japan at age 5. Conversation with , The Writer http://www.writermag.com/, volume 114, number 5, May 2001, collected in Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro, p. 189 https://books.google.com/books?id=lvuteIrz7JUC&pg=PA189&dq=%22there+was+another+life+that+i+might+have+had,+but+I%E2%80%99m+having+this+one%22
Interviews
Context: I have a sense of having just left without saying goodbye, and of this whole other world just kind of fading away. … I have the feeling of this completely alternative person I should have become. There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.

Octavia E. Butler photo

“I might not have believed this if a Human had said it. Humans said one thing with their bodies and another with their mouths and everybody had to spend time and energy figuring out what they really meant.”

Octavia E. Butler book Imago

Source: Imago (1989), Chapter I, “Metamorphosis” section 4 (p. 548)

Terry Pratchett photo

“It's hard to explain," said Brutha. "But I think it's got something to do with how people should behave… you should do things because they're right. Not because gods say so. They might say something different another time.”

Terry Pratchett book Small Gods

Source: Small Gods

Georges Bernanos photo

“I have just discovered something I have always known: we can no more escape from one another than we can escape from God.”

Georges Bernanos (1888–1948) French writer

Chantal, p. 112
La joie (Joy) 1929

Samuel Beckett photo

“For had I been able to conceive something worse than what I had I would have known no peace until I got it, if I know anything about myself.”

Samuel Beckett book Molloy

Molloy (1951)
Context: Anything worse than what I do, without knowing what, or why, I have never been able to conceive, and that doesn’t surprise me, for I never tried. For had I been able to conceive something worse than what I had I would have known no peace until I got it, if I know anything about myself.

Matt Damon photo

“I mean, I did ride the Paris subway in an attempt to get pick-pocketed in order to see how exactly they did it. My buddy was videoing the whole thing. No one picked my pocket. We got bolder and bolder as we went, but it didn’t pan out for us.”

Matt Damon (1970) American actor, screenwriter, and producer

"Matt Damon Discusses Ocean's 12, (8 December 2004) http://movies.about.com/od/oceanstwelve/a/oceansmd120804.htm

Harry Chapin photo

“Well another man might have been angry,
And another man might have been hurt,
But another man never would have let her go…
I stashed the bill in my shirt.”

Harry Chapin (1942–1981) American musician

Taxi
Song lyrics, Heads & Tales (1972)
Context: There was not much more for us to talk about,
Whatever we had once was gone.
So I turned my cab into the driveway,
Past the gate and the fine trimmed lawns.
And she said we must get together,
But I knew it'd never be arranged.
And she handed me twenty dollars,
For a two fifty fare, she said
"Harry, keep the change."
Well another man might have been angry,
And another man might have been hurt,
But another man never would have let her go...
I stashed the bill in my shirt.

““You have a rough manner,” said Titus. “But you have saved me twice. Why are you helping me?”
“I have no idea,” said Muzzlehatch. “There must be something wrong with my brain.””

Mervyn Peake book Titus Alone

Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 29 (p. 852)

Related topics