Ben Lerner

Writer

Quotes by Ben Lerner

• Poetry arises from the desire to get beyond the finite and the historical— the human world of violence and difference— and to reach the transcendent or divine. You're moved to write a poem, you feel called upon to sing, because of that transcendent impulse. But as soon as you move from that impulse to the actual poem, the song of the infinite is compromised by the finitude of its terms.

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• Since the world is ending,— Peter quoted from behind us, —why not let the children touch the paintings?

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