James Merrill Quotes

#1. There's something really empowering about going, 'Hell, I can do this! I can do this all!' That's the wonderful thing about mothers, you can because you must, and you just DO.

Kate Winslet

#2. According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.

Jerry Seinfeld

#3. Nor do I try to keep a garden, only
An avocado in a glass of water --
Roots pallid, gemmed with air. And later,

When the small gilt leaves have grown
Fleshy and green, I let them die, yes, yes,
And start another. I am earth's no less.

James Merrill

#4. I want to reduce my risks as much as possible and hopefully be able to go to the World Cup fit, ready and healthy.

Abby Wambach

#5. But those two plays left me on fresh terms with language. I didn't always have to speak in my own voice.

James Merrill

#6. It's funny how you get a bit older and become more accepting of things. When you're in your twenties, you're skeptical of everything. I definitely felt like that.

Jamie Dornan

#7. The simplest science book is over my head.

James Merrill

#8. I'd like to think the scientists need us - but do they? Did Newton need Blake?

James Merrill

#9. Knowing some Greek helped defuse forbidding words - not that I counted much on using them. You'll find only trace elements of this language in the poem.

James Merrill

#10. Strange about parents. We have such easy access to them and such daunting problems of communication.

James Merrill

#11. At college I'd seen my dead frog's limbs twitch under some applied stimulus or other - seen, but hadn't believed. Didn't dream of thinking beyond or around what I saw.

James Merrill

#12. I'm scared of a lot of things. That's no reason to try.

Mila Ferrera

#13. You know how sports teach kids teamwork and how to be strong and brave and confident? Improv was my sport. I learned how to not waffle and how to hold a conversation, how to take risks and actually be excited to fail.

Emma Stone

#14. Arthur Young's Reflexive Universe - fascinating but too schematic to fit into my scheme. The most I could hope for was a sense of the vocabulary and some possible images.

James Merrill

#15. Freedom to be oneself is all very well; the greater freedom is not to be oneself.

James Merrill

#16. Delighting in the Lord alters the desires.

Billy Graham

#17. In life, there are no perfect affections.

James Merrill

#18. And, as I have said, it's made me think twice about the imagination. If the spirits aren't external, how astonishing the mediums become! Victor Hugo said of his voices that they were like his own mental powers multiplied by five.

James Merrill

#19. Before trying a novel I wrote a couple of plays.

James Merrill

#20. He puts his right hand lightly on the cup, I put my left, leaving the right free to transcribe, and away we go. We get, oh, 500 to 600 words an hour. Better than gasoline.

James Merrill

#21. You love me?" he asked suddenly and, at his question, my stomach flipped then twisted.
"Yes."
"Then fuckin' kiss me good morning, Ace," he demanded softly but firmly.

Kristen Ashley

#22. The day is breaking someone else's heart.

James Merrill