In our period, they say there is free speech. They say there is no penalty for poets, There is no penalty for writing poems. They say this. This is the penalty. Muriel Rukeyser Read Quote
One characteristic of modern poetry is that arrangement of parts which strikes many people as being violent or obscure. Muriel Rukeyser Read Quote
Local images have one kind of reality. ‘U.S. 1’ will, I hope, have that kind and another, too. Poetry can extend the document. Muriel Rukeyser Read Quote
Editors have grown timid… a brave advance is almost inevitably followed by quick back-tracking, generally by dilution and debasement of the original intention. Muriel Rukeyser Read Quote
Those who speak of our culture as dead or dying have a quarrel with life, and I think they cannot understand its terms, but must endlessly repeat the projection of their own desires. Muriel Rukeyser Read Quote
If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger. Muriel Rukeyser Read Quote
The actual world, not some fantastic structure that has nothing to do with reality, must provide the material for modern poetry. Muriel Rukeyser Read Quote
I hear the singing of the lives of women. They clear mystery, the offering, and pride. Muriel Rukeyser Read Quote
I think there is choice possible to us at any moment, as long as we live. But there is no sacrifice. There is a choice, and the rest falls away. Second choice does not exist. Beware of those who talk about sacrifice. Muriel Rukeyser Read Quote
