Charles Simic quotes

Charles Simic was a Serbian-American poet and essayist, celebrated for his surreal and insightful works. His poetry often blends dark humor with profound observations about war, memory, and the human condition. He became one of America's most respected literary voices and served as the U.S. Poet Laureate. Here are 21 of his quotes:

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

Charles Simic

Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.

Charles Simic

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

Charles Simic

Silence is the only language god speaks.

Charles Simic

If the sky falls they shall have clouds for supper.

Charles Simic

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

Charles Simic

He who cannot howl will not find his pack.

Charles Simic

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

Charles Simic

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

Charles Simic

Only poetry can measure the distance between ourselves and the Other.

Charles Simic

The ambition of much of today's literary theory seems to be to find ways to read literature without imagination.

Charles Simic

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.

Charles Simic

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

Charles Simic

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.

Charles Simic

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.

Charles Simic

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.

Charles Simic

The poem I want to write is impossible. A stone that floats.

Charles Simic

I slept little, read a lot, and fell in love frequently.

Charles Simic