“The purpose of poetry is to remind us / how difficult it is to remain just one person…”
Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator
Source: Immortality
“The purpose of poetry is to remind us / how difficult it is to remain just one person…”
Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator
“Such is the life of a man. Moments of joy, obliterated by unforgettable sorrow.”
Marcel Pagnol (1895–1974) novelist, playwright and filmmaker from France
Greil Marcus (1945) American historian
Marcus on Robert Johnson in Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music (1975, fourth revision May, 1997) p. 31.
“If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.”
Carl Sagan book Pale Blue Dot
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
“We all live with it. That unbearable terror is what makes us such singular creatures.”
Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981) American playwright, screenwriter and novelist
Emily Jessup
Altered States (1980)
Context: We all live with it. That unbearable terror is what makes us such singular creatures. We hide from it, we succumb to it, mostly we defy it! We build fragile little structures to keep it out. We love, we raise families, we work, we make friends. We write poems...
“The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable.”
Joseph Roux (1834–1905) French poet
Part 5, XXXVII
Meditations of a Parish Priest (1866)