We must travel in the direction of our fear.

quote by John Berryman
Added by Lucian Velea
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I didn't want to be like Yeats; I wanted to be Yeats.

quote by John Berryman
Added by Lucian Velea
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Bats have no bankers and they do not drink and cannot be arrested and pay no tax and, in general, bats have it made.

quote by John Berryman
Added by Lucian Velea
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The artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business.

quote by John Berryman
Added by Lucian Velea
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Dream Song 14

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn,
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatingly) 'Ever to confess you're bored
means you have no

Inner Resources.' I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
Peoples bore me,
literature bores me, especially great literature,
Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes
as bad as achilles,

who loves people and valiant art, which bores me.
And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.

poem by John Berryman from The Dream Songs (1969)
Added by Dan Costinaş
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