Maggie Nelson Quotes

I don't think there's any formula for what makes great art.

Art to me is not precious enough that I feel territorial about what the word gets applied to. Conversations about what counts as art and what doesn't doesn't captivate my attention very much.

In life and art, there are distinctions to be made between what an act of cruelty consists of.

I don't ever believe in violence as a kind of medicine.

We're all human beings with bodily needs living within a system. We don't need to prove that we're not a part of the fabric of the culture in order to want to change it.

It's a lot easier to write about people when you're not living with them!

Evolution strikes me as infinitely more spiritually profound than Genesis.

But is there really such a thing as nothing, as nothingness? I don't now. I know we're still here, who knows for how long, ablaze with our care, its ongoing song.

Perhaps I had inadvertently brushed up against the Buddhist axiom, that enlightenment is the ultimate disappointment.

To take a breath of water: does the thought panic or excite you?

So far as I can tell, most worthwhile pleasures on this earth slip between gratifying another and gratifying oneself. Some would call that an ethics.

We don't get to choose what or whom we love, I want to say. We just don't get to choose.

Sometimes one has to know something many times over. Sometimes one forgets, and then remembers. And then forgets, and then remembers. And then forgets again.

This is the dysfunction talking. This is the disease talking. This is how much I miss you talking. This is the deepest blue, talking, talking, always talking to you.

Do not, however, make the mistake of thinking that all desire is yearning.

I am trying to talk about what blue means, or what it means to me, apart from meaning.

The question up for debate between Socrates and Phaedrus is whether the written word kills memory or aids it--whether it cripples the mind's power, or whether it cures it of its forgetfulness.

Misogyny, when expressed or explored by men, remains a timeless classic.

This is generous, for to be close to her pain has always felt like a privilege to me, even though pain could be defined as that which we typically aim to avoid.

It is always taking care, but it is difficult, because at times to take care of her is also to cause her pain.

It will not say, 'Isn't X beautiful?' Such demands are murderous to beauty.

Mostly I have felt myself becoming a servant of sadness. I am still looking for the beauty in that.

102. After my friend's accident I take care of her. It is always taking care, but it is difficult, because at times to take care of her is also to cause her pain.

After my friend's accident I take care of her. It is always taking care, but it is difficult, because at times to take care of her is also to cause her pain.