Toward his critics, the artist harbors a defensive ace: knowledge that the future will erase the present. — Louise Gluck

I have no concern with widening audience. — Louise Gluck

You know what despair is; then winter should have meaning for you. — Louise Glu

I preferred the simplest vocabulary. — Louise Gluck

It is true there is not enough beauty in the world. It is also true that I am not competent to restore it. Neither is there candor, and here I may be of some use. — Louise Glück

I think I can remember being dead. Many times, in winter, I approached Zeus. Tell me, I would ask him, how can I endure the earth? — Louise Glu

At the end of my suffering/there was a door. — Louise Glu

Balm of the summer night, balm of the ordinary, imperial joy and sorrow of human existence, the dreamed as well as the lived–what could be dearer than this, given the closeness of death? — Louise Glu

The advantage of poetry over life is that poetry, if it is sharp enough, may last. — Louise Glu

Of two sisters one is always the watcher, one the dancer. — Louise Glu

What was difficult was the travel, which, on arrival, is forgotten. — Louise Glu

I don’t live with earplugs. I don’t like the spotlight–but I like overhearing conversations. — Louise Gluck

The self ended and the world began. They were of equal size, commensurate, one mirrored the other. 18. The riddle was: why couldn’t we live in the mind. The answer was: the barrier of the earth intervened. — Louise Glu

Intense love always leads to mourning. — Louise Glu

At first I saw you everywhere. Now only in certain things, at longer intervals. — Louise Glu

The master said you must write what you see / But what I see does not move me / The master answered Change what you see. — Louise Glu

The love of form is a love of endings. — Louise Glu

That’s why I’m not to be trusted. Because a wound to the heart is also a wound to the mind — Louise Glu

I pretended indifference…even in the presence of love, in the presence of hunger. And the more deeply I felt, the less able I was to respond. — Louise Glu

The great thing is not having a mind. Feelings: oh, I have those; they govern me. — Louise Glu

Honor the words that enter and attach to your brain. — Louise Glu

To raise the veil. To see what you’re saying goodbye to. — Louise Glu

Birth, not death, is the hard loss. — Louise Glu

The soul is silent. If it speaks at all it speaks in dreams. — Louise Glu

I had nothing and I was still changed. Like a costume, my numbness was taken away. Then hunger was added. — Louise Glu

We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory. — Louise Glück

Like a child, the earth’s going to sleep, or so the story goes. But I’m not tired, it says. And the mother says, You may not be tired but I’m tired — Louise Glu

From the beginning of time, in childhood, I thought that pain meant I was not loved. It meant I loved. — Louise Glu