Joseph Brodsky Quotes

Joseph Brodsky
Joseph Brodsky
American Poet
Born: May 24, 1940
Died: Jan 28, 1996
About Language Life Poet Time You
Related authors: Edgar Allan Poe Emily Dickinson Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Maya Angelou Ralph Waldo Emerson Robert Frost T. S. Eliot Walt Whitman
English is the only interesting thing that's left in my life. Joseph Brodsky
Life My Life Only Left Interesting Interesting Thing English Thing
What provides you with subject matter is your own language - and that's all. Joseph Brodsky
You Matter Language Own Subject Subject Matter Provides Your
Writers seem mesmerized by the state - the temporal entity. The word 'perestroika' is impressed somehow on our minds. But that is not the duty of a writer. Joseph Brodsky
Word Duty State Our Minds Temporal Seem Somehow Entity Writer Writers Mesmerized Impressed
The career of an esthete was nothing I ever intended. Joseph Brodsky
Nothing Intended Ever Career
Poetry isn't just different from prose, it's more important for the human species. Joseph Brodsky
Important More Poetry Prose Human Just Different Human Species Species
I was fortunate enough to write about things I really love, and love can be very analytic. Joseph Brodsky
Love Enough Analytic About Write Very Really Fortunate Things
I wrote poems. That is my work. I am convinced... I believe that what I wrote will be useful to people not only now but in future generations. Joseph Brodsky
Work Future People Will Believe Future Generations Poems Only Generations Wrote Am Convinced Useful Now
Poems, novels - these things belong to the nation, to the culture, and the people. Joseph Brodsky
Culture People Nation Poems Novels Things Belong
I belong to the Russian language. As to the state, from my point of view, the measure of a writer's patriotism is not oaths from a high platform, but how he writes in the language of the people among whom he lives. Joseph Brodsky
Patriotism People Language State Oaths High Russian Point Point Of View Writer Writes He How View Measure Platform Whom Lives Among Belong
Although I am losing my Soviet citizenship, I do not cease to be a Russian poet. Joseph Brodsky
Losing Poet Citizenship Russian Although Am Cease Soviet
Art is a spirit seeking flesh but finding words. Joseph Brodsky
Art Words Finding Spirit Seeking Flesh
In terms of freedom, America doesn't invite any comparison to Russia. It would be silly to make one. Every line that I care to write, I can have printed. There is no point to even talk about degrees. Joseph Brodsky
Freedom Care Every Would Would-Be Degrees Silly About Russia No Point Point Write Invite Talk Terms Make Printed Line America Any Even Comparison
People who buy 'The National Enquirer' would buy poetry. They should be given a choice. I'm absolutely serious. Joseph Brodsky
Buy People National Would Given Poetry Absolutely Choice Should Who Serious
Any dispute in matters of taste usually results in a standoff. Joseph Brodsky
Matters Results Taste Any Dispute
The concept of historical necessity is the product of rational thought and arrived in Russia by the Western route. The idea of the noble savage, of an inherently good human nature hampered by bad institutions, of the ideal state, of social justice and so forth - none of these originated or blossomed on the banks of the Volga. Joseph Brodsky
Savage Good Nature Justice Thought Human Nature State Bad Russia Rational Noble Idea Ideal Institutions Concept None Arrived Western Historical Blossomed Human Banks Social Forth Product Social Justice Inherently Originated Route Necessity Good Human
It's not that prison makes you shed your abstract notions. On the contrary, it pares them down to their most succinct articulations. Prison is, indeed, a translation of your metaphysics, ethics, sense of history and whatnot into the compact terms of your daily deportment. Joseph Brodsky
Daily History You Ethics Prison Sense Translation Down On The Contrary Indeed Abstract Most Terms Shed Makes Metaphysics Contrary Whatnot Them Your Notions Compact
The literature from which I come is rather large. Joseph Brodsky
Rather Come Literature Which Large
There is nothing odder than to apply an analytical device to a synthetic phenomenon: for instance, to write in English about a Russian poet. Joseph Brodsky
Poet Nothing Analytical Synthetic About Russian Write Instance Device Than English Apply Phenomenon
Neither as a writer nor, moreover, as a leader of a nation should you use terminology that obscures the reality of human evil. Joseph Brodsky
You Reality Evil Leader Nation Neither Moreover Writer Terminology Nor Human Should Use
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