Someone sits at a table or lies on a sofa while staring motionless at a wall or ceiling. Once in a while this person writes down seven lines, only to cross out one of them 15 minutes later, and then another hour passes, during which nothing happens. Who could stand to watch this kind of thing?
Category Archive: Wislawa Szymborska
Sometimes I really have a spiritual need to say something more general about the world, and sometimes something personal.
Even the worst book can give us something to think about.
I usually write for the individual reader -though I would like to have many such readers. There are some poets who write for people assembled in big rooms, so they can live through something collectively. I prefer my reader to take my poem and have a one-on-one relationship with it.
This terrifying world is not devoid of charms, of the mornings that make waking up worthwhile.
Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.
After every war someone has to tidy up.
When I was young I had a moment of believing in the Communist doctrine. I wanted to save the world through Communism. Quite soon I understood that it doesn’t work, but I’ve never pretended it didn’t happen to me.
Is a decision made in advance really any kind of choice.
All is mine but nothing owned, nothing owned for memory, and mine only while I look.