Lisel Mueller quotes

Poetry, for me, is the answer to, 'How does one stay sane when private lives are being ransacked by public events?' It's something that hangs over your head all the time. (Lisel Mueller)
Everything is autobiography, even if one writes something that is totally objective. The fact that it's a subject that seizes you makes it autobiographical. View quote
Lisel Mueller
Well, language seems to be something that obsesses me. I'm always writing about it. View quote
Lisel Mueller
Memory and poetry go together, absolutely. It is a matter of preserving and of remembering things. View quote
Lisel Mueller
I am imprinted with the whole sense of European history, especially German history, going back to World War I, which really destroyed all the old values and culture. My grandparents had been reasonably well-off but they became quite poor, living in an attic apartment. View quote
Lisel Mueller
When I was in college, I did do some writing of poetry, somewhat inspired, I think at that time, by Carl Sandburg, because English was still relatively new to me, and Sandburg, of course, wrote in a very easy-to-understand, very colloquial and informal manner. View quote
Lisel Mueller
How swiftly the strained honey of afternoon light flows into darkness and the closed bud shrugs off its special mystery in order to break into blossom: as if what exists, exists so that it can be lost and become precious. View quote
Lisel Mueller

Lisel Mueller

Occupation: American Poet
Born: February 8, 1924
Died: February 21, 2020
Quotes count: 7