September 5th, 2009 / 1:33 pm
 Power Quote

Power Quote: W. S. Merwin

W. S. Merwin

W. S. Merwin

“I had hardly begun to read

I asked how can you ever be sure

that what you write is really

any good at all and he said you can’t

you can’t you can never be sure

you die without knowing

whether anything you wrote was any good

if you have to be sure don’t write”

-From “Berryman”

Tags: ,

12 Comments

  1. September 5th, 2009 / 5:50 pm sarah—

      perfect. need to post this somewhere.

  2. September 5th, 2009 / 1:50 pm sarah—

      perfect. need to post this somewhere.

  3. September 5th, 2009 / 8:41 pm Michael James—

      There is truth here. And it makes me feel better. And I cant stop reading it. Yet I cant shake this feeling that isnt completely correct. Well, correct for me I mean. Aren’t there a bunch of writers out there who feel as if what they are writing isnt any good. And they wonder. And they keep writing wondering….. i was gonna go somewhere with this. But mid sentence/thought I said fuck it. I like how he put it. I dont all the way agree. But I ain’t debating shit.

      Merwin is cool.

  4. September 5th, 2009 / 4:41 pm Michael James—

      There is truth here. And it makes me feel better. And I cant stop reading it. Yet I cant shake this feeling that isnt completely correct. Well, correct for me I mean. Aren’t there a bunch of writers out there who feel as if what they are writing isnt any good. And they wonder. And they keep writing wondering….. i was gonna go somewhere with this. But mid sentence/thought I said fuck it. I like how he put it. I dont all the way agree. But I ain’t debating shit.

      Merwin is cool.

  5. July 4th, 2010 / 3:34 pm Chin—

      Merwin is cool, but Berryman said it.

  6. July 4th, 2010 / 3:57 pm Steven Augustine—

      I think it’s scarier than that: you can never be sure that writing something that’s any good will matter.

  7. July 4th, 2010 / 7:34 pm Chin—

      Merwin is cool, but Berryman said it.

  8. July 4th, 2010 / 7:57 pm Steven Augustine—

      I think it’s scarier than that: you can never be sure that writing something that’s any good will matter.

  9. July 8th, 2010 / 6:43 pm Joanna—

      Very well said!

  10. July 8th, 2010 / 10:43 pm Joanna—

      Very well said!

  11. February 15th, 2011 / 5:28 am Dixon—

      You can’t please everyone. In fact, sometimes, you can’t please anyone.
      Please yourself, but don’t get complacent. Complacency leads to tripe, which leads to Menudo, and you don’t deserve that.
      Write like it’s your last idea, edit like it’s your first, and bugger the critics–you’ll be fine.

      Dixon
      http://yellowfat.wordpress.com

  12. March 7th, 2012 / 1:51 am The best HTMLGIANT posts as chosen by you the readers of HTMLGIANT or at least some of you | HTMLGIANT—

      […] Michael Schaub: Power Quote: W. S. Merwin […]