Muriel Rukeyser

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.

A work of art is one through which the consciousness of the artist is able to give its emotions to anyone who is prepared to receive them.

In our period, they say there is free speech. They say there is no penalty for poets, There is no penalty for writing poems. They say this. This is the penalty.

Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings. Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest. The blessing is in the seed.

The town of Gauley Bridge stands as a pattern for all those places where people are linked even in the middle of their suffering, where people fight against an evil condition so that other people need not go through the same fight.

Always our wars have been our confessions of weakness

A work of art is one through which the consciousness of the artist is able to give its emotions to anyone who is prepared to receive them. There is no such thing as bad art.

What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.

The actual world, not some fantastic structure that has nothing to do with reality, must provide the material for modern poetry.

The sources of poetry are in the spirit seeking completeness.

The fear of poetry is an indication that we are cut off from our own reality.

I should like to use another word: 'audience' or 'reader' or 'listener' seems inadequate. I suggest the old word 'witness,' which includes the act of seeing and knowing by personal experience, as well as the act of giving evidence.

I hear the singing of the lives of women. They clear mystery, the offering, and pride.

Local images have one kind of reality. 'U.S. 1' will, I hope, have that kind and another, too. Poetry can extend the document.

I learned that I had been brought up as a protected, blindfolded daughter.

If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger.

As we live our truths, we will communicate across all barriers, speaking for the sources of peace. Peace that is not lack of war, but fierce and positive.