May 8th, 2013 / 3:35 pm
Power Quote & Snippets

“I get so very tired of having to talk about literature. I didn’t begin writing because I wanted to sit in a room and discuss the subjectivity in Wordsworth and Ashbery; I began writing because I had made friends with the dead: they had written to me, in their books, about life on earth and I wanted to write back and say yes, house, bridge, river, hair, no, maybe, never, forever.” — Mary Ruefle (via Amber Sparks)

7 Comments

  1. M. Kitchell

      i love this

  2. Oh, Yes! | Tiny Cat Pants

      […] I get so very tired of having to talk about literature. I didn’t begin writing because I wanted to sit in a room and discuss the subjectivity in Wordsworth and Ashbery; I began writing because I had made friends with the dead: they had written to me, in their books, about life on earth and I wanted to write back and say yes, house, bridge, river, hair, no, maybe, never, forever. — Mary Ruefle (via Amber Sparks) (I saw it on HTML Giant) […]

  3. Tom Beshear

      Then don’t go in that room.

  4. ZZZZZIPPP

      THIS IS GREAT

      YES THOSE DAMN DEAD PEOPLE ZZZIPP JUST WANTS TO TELL THEM WHERE THE HOUSE IS SO THEY CAN CLEAN THE CARPETS, RID PETS OF LICE, ETC

      COMPLETELY

  5. Matt Rowan

      I love saying those last things, too! Especially “hair.”

  6. deadgod

      I love listening to the dead, too.

      And I doubt it’s fair entirely to mock Ruefle for these few sentences. But I think it’s fair to turn them over a bit.

      “Tired of” conversation partners who engage directly with and might challenge points of view, in favor of conversations with the dead?

      Or the implication that “talk[ing] about literature” might hinder writing “yes, house, bridge, river, hair, maybe, never, forever”?

      That’s deep.

  7. herocious

      Mary Ruefle