Alice Notley Quotes & Sayings

Feeling awful is physiological you say.
God I hate you, I say. Yes you can find the neurons for feeling awful. Do you think you can find the neurons for the fact I hate you? — Alice Notley

you see all night in your dreams. And the blue of my voice can't help but see you. — Alice Notley

I'll never know how to live, will you? — Alice Notley

'You are your" "Past, Present," "& Future,' he said" " 'You divide into" "those components" "in this room' " " 'But I do not have" "components!' " "our three voices said," " 'My
secret name - " "Time's secret name" "is Oneness," "is One Thing' " "As I - the one" "in the middle - spoke," "the one of us in front - " "who was the Past - " "had already" "finished speaking" "& was awaiting" "his reply" "He said," " 'Don't we seem" "to experience" "things
somewhat this way?" "There is past, present" :& future' " "The Future then cried out," " 'Where is my life?" 'Where is my life?" "You have stolen" "my life!' " "There was a silence" "The man" "reached out &" "pressed a button" "on the cave wall - " "we three united" "into
one again" "while he wrote words on" "a clipboard" "Then he looked up & said," " 'Going forward?" "Going on?" "Death lies ahead, you know' " "Any woman" "may already" "be dead,' " "I said — Alice Notley

Who do you serve? Do you serve somebody?
I serve the poem, no one. — Alice Notley

We name us and then we are lost, tamed
I choose words, more words, to cure the tameness, not the wildness — Alice Notley

Abolish these categories of pain
(or is it love)
Let it all be one pain
Pain swallows itself, dies like a star. — Alice Notley

... our production of the world, our interpretation of it, what we've been told to experience and what we've been told we have to do, both worry and distress me. I don't want to live in someone else's dream. — Alice Notley

In love there is no because. — Alice Notley

Because we rejected a certain kind of critical language people just assumed that we were dumb — Alice Notley

It's all like me; and any song for this would just be bullshit. This is a thing, where they stopped trying, they deserted it, and desertion itself is the only possible song. — Alice Notley

I didn't care much what happened to me, so chance didn't matter. — Alice Notley

I knew you were in charge of me but my mind broke on its own. — Alice Notley

And maybe you can't know me now.
Maybe I'm just blood. Whatever that's for. — Alice Notley

I do utterly despise dailiness as it stands. I can't abide what the world has become, the frozen-ness of our product this evil thing that we kiss the ass of every hour. I want a dailiness that is free and beautiful — Alice Notley

Jack of diamonds is a hard card, why should there be a story? It's too hard a card to please, and it isn't the no earth I know. I got hepatitis C from shooting speed thirty-three years ago. — Alice Notley

You're dancing on me
said the cosmic dragon, the galactic surface of all we can see.
So fucking what? she said. — Alice Notley

Writing poetry is what I am. I wouldn't know what else to be. — Alice Notley

oh each poet's a beautiful human girl who must die. — Alice Notley

Gee whiz, it's all fucking heart-
breaking — Alice Notley

It's necessary to maintain a state of disobedience against ... everything. — Alice Notley

I'm not an expert in the deck at all. My interest lies somewhere near a sense that words are like tarot cards, and that a poem manipulates unpredictable depths with its words ... I like the tarot because it works like poetry and because you don't really have to 'believe in' anything. It's there to be used. The symbols are remarkably durable and beautiful; they float out to encompass all kinds of meanings. — Alice Notley