“What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?”
Robert Hayden (1913–1980) American writer and academic
Those Winter Sundays (lines 13-14)
Used on many occasions and often appears in Johnny Carson parodies.
“What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?”
Robert Hayden (1913–1980) American writer and academic
Those Winter Sundays (lines 13-14)
“My, my. I don’t know how I did it. (Laughs) But I did it.”
Minnie Evans (1892–1987) American artist
Cited in Allie Light, Irving Saraf (1983), "The Angel That Stands By Me"
“i hate not knowing what i did." _Eric”
Charlaine Harris book Dead as a Doornail
Source: Dead as a Doornail
“I did not know then how much was ended.”
Black Elk (1863–1950) Oglala Lakota leader
Speaking of the Massacre at Wounded Knee.
Black Elk Speaks (1961)
Context: I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.
And I, to whom so great a vision was given in my youth, — you see me now a pitiful old man who has done nothing, for the nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead.
“Not only do I not know what's going on, I wouldn't know what to do about it if I did.”
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
Imbolo Mbue (1982) Cameroonian writer
On why she wrote Behold the Dreamers in “Imbolo Mbue on Empathy and the Price of the American Dream” https://lithub.com/imbolo-mbue-on-empathy-and-the-price-of-the-american-dream/ in Lit Hub (2017 Jun 1)
“I did not know him, I knew my idea
of him.”
Sharon Olds (1942) American poet
Source: Stag's Leap: Poems
“I know more than I knew before
I didn't rest I didn't stop
Did we fight or did we talk.”
Leslie Feist (1976) Canadian musician
"I Feel It All"
The Reminder (2007)
“I did know once, only I've sort of forgotten.”
A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh
Source: Winnie-the-Pooh