Anne Sexton was an American poet and writer from Massachusetts. She was known for her highly personal and confessional poetry, which addressed topics such as depression, suicide, and the difficulties of being a woman. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book Live or Die.
What is the most famous quote by Anne Sexton ?
Emerald as heavy as a golf course, ruby as dark as an afterbirth, diamond as white as sun on the sea.
— Anne Sexton
What can you learn from Anne Sexton (Life Lessons)
- Anne Sexton's work often focuses on themes of mental health, self-reflection, and the power of vulnerability, teaching us to be honest with ourselves and to embrace our struggles.
- Her work also encourages us to find beauty and joy in the world around us, even in difficult times.
- Finally, her work reminds us of the importance of connection and community, and that we are never truly alone.
The most strong Anne Sexton quotes that may be undiscovered and unusual
Following is a list of the best quotes, including various Anne Sexton inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by Anne Sexton.
Saints have no moderation, nor do poets, just exuberance.
Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.
I am a collection of dismantled almosts.
Watch out for intellect, because it knows so much it knows nothing and leaves you hanging upside down, mouthing knowledge as your heart falls out of your mouth.
Meanwhile in my head, I’m undergoing open-heart surgery.
Love? Be it man. Be it woman. It must be a wave you want to glide in on, give your body to it, give your laugh to it, give, when the gravelly sand takes you, your tears to the land. To love another is something like prayer and can't be planned, you just fall into its arms because your belief undoes your disbelief.
O starry night, This is how I want to die
I am alone here in my own mind. There is no map and there is no road. It is one of a kind just as yours is.
Expressive quotes by Anne Sexton
It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.
I am crazy as hell, but I know it. And knowing it is a kind of sanity that makes the sickness worse.
The joy that isn't shared dies young.
All I wanted was a little piece of life, to be married, to have children.
... I was trying my damnedest to lead a conventional life, for that was how I was brought up, and it was what my husband wanted of me. But one can't build little white picket fences to keep the nightmares out.
Cinderella and the prince lived, they say, happily ever after, like two dolls in a museum case never bothered by diapers or dust, never arguing over the timing of an egg, never telling the same story twice.
I am younger each year at the first snow.
When I see it, suddenly, in the air, all little and white and moving; then I am in love again and very young and I believe everything.
But my future is a secret. / It is as shy as a mole.
Only my books anoint me, and a few friends, those who reach into my veins.
Quotations by Anne Sexton that are intense and poignant
Depression is boring, I think and I would do better to make some soup and light up the cave.
I would like a simple life / yet all night I am laying / poems away in a long box.
Come, my pretender, my fritter, my bubbler, my chicken biddy! Oh succulent one, it is but one turn in the road and I would be a cannibal!
It was as if a morning-glory had bloomed in her throat, and all that blue and small pollen ate into my heart, violent and religious
Sometimes I fly like an eagle but with the wings of a wren
The stars are pears that no one can reach, even for a wedding. Perhaps for a death.
I'm hunting for the truth. It might be a kind of poetic truth, and not just a factual one, because behind everything that happens to you, there is another truth, a secret life.
The boys and girls are one tonight. They unbutton blouses. They unzip flies. They take off shoes. They turn off the light. The glimmering creatures are full of lies. They are eating each other. They are overfed. At night, alone, I marry the bed.
I try to take care and be gentle to them. Words and eggs must be handled with care. Once broken they are impossible things to repair.
Some women marry houses. It's another kind of skin; it has a heart, a mouth, a liver and bowel movements.
The snow has quietness in it; no songs, no smells, no shouts or traffic. When I speak my own voice shocks me.
I'm an empress. I wear an apron. My typewriter writes. It didn't break the way it warned. Even crazy, I'm as nice as a chocolate bar.
There is rust in my mouth,the stain of an old kiss.
Frog has no nerves. Frog is as old as a cockroach. Frog is my father's genitals. Frog is a malformed doorknob. Frog is a soft bag of green.
I was the girl of the chain letter, the girl full of talk of coffins and keyholes, the one of the telephone bills, the wrinkled photo and the lost connections.
God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.
I am younger each year at the first snow.
... a starving man doesn't ask what the meal is.
One can't build little white picket fences to keep nightmares out.
Once upon a time we were all born, popped out like jelly rolls forgetting our fishdom, the pleasuring seas, the country of comfort, spanked into the oxygens of death.
It's all a matter of history. Brandy is no solace. Librium only lies me down like a dead snow queen. Yes! I am still the criminal.
I will be steel! I will build a steel bridge over my need! I will build a bomb shelter over my heart! But my future is a secret. It is as shy as a mole.
Be careful of words, / ... they can be both daisies and bruises.
Poems aren't postcards to send home.
think of innocent Icarus who is doing quite well: larger than a sail, over the fog and the blast of the plushy ocean, he goes. Admire his wings!
We are America. We are the coffin fillers. We are the grocers of death. We pack them in crates like cauliflowers.
The tongue, the Chinese say, is like a sharp knife: it kills without drawing blood.
A woman / who loves a woman / is forever young.
Our children tremble in their teen-age cribs, whirling off on a thumb or a motorcycle.
Let there be seasons so that our tongues will be rich in asparagus and limes.
Daisies in water are the longest lasting flower you can give to someone. Fact. Buy daisies. Not roses.
I’ll put it out there: I am scarred by the nostalgic indicipherability of my own desires; I an engulfed by the intimidating unknown, pushed through darkness and dragged down by the irretrievable past sweetness of my memories.
To love another is somethinglike prayer and it can't be planned, you just fallinto its arms because your belief undoes your disbelief.