Wie lange
Dauern die Werke? So lange
Als bis sie fertig sind.
"About the way to construct enduring works" [Über die Bauart langdauernder Werke] (1932), trans. Frank Jones in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 193
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
Wie lange Dauern die Werke? So lange Als bis sie fertig sind.
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
Source: Accepting the Universe (1920), p.111
Source: The End of the Affair
Statement in El defensor de Córdoba (2 October 1936), as cited by Agustín Celis http://www.agustincelis.com/id64.htm
“I feel that after working a long time, I’ve really learned how to do what I do. I enjoy it.”
Paris Review interview (1986)
Context: I feel that after working a long time, I’ve really learned how to do what I do. I enjoy it. I don’t think there’s anything more satisfying than turning out a good stanza or a good piece of prose. And when you’re satisfied enough, you want to show it to other people. That’s called publication.
“It hasn't had a chance to be in place long enough to offer a critique of how it's working.”
2010s
“It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.”
“How do I know that the dead do not regret their previous longing for life?”
Context: How do I know that enjoying life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death we are not like people who got lost in early childhood and do not know the way home? Lady Li was the child of a border guard in Ai. When first captured by the state of Jin, she wept so much her clothes were soaked. But after she entered the palace, shared the king's bed, and dined on the finest meats, she regretted her tears. How do I know that the dead do not regret their previous longing for life? One who dreams of drinking wine may in the morning weep; one who dreams weeping may in the morning go out to hunt. During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream. And yet fools think they are awake, presuming to know that they are rulers or herdsmen. How dense! You and Confucius are both dreaming, and I who say you are a dream am also a dream. Such is my tale. It will probably be called preposterous, but after ten thousand generations there may be a great sage who will be able to explain it, a trivial interval equivalent to the passage from morning to night.
“The memory of how we work will endure beyond the products of our work.”
A reference to the Apple design team, in an interview at the Design Museum (2003)
