The secret wish of poetry is to stop time.

- Charles Simic

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

- Charles Simic

He who cannot howl will not find his pack.

- Charles Simic

The world is beautiful but not sayable. That's why we need art.

- Charles Simic

In their effort to divorce language and experience, deconstructionist critics remind me of middle-class parents who do not allow their children to pl…

- Charles Simic

When people ask me how to find happiness in life I tell them, First learn how to cook.

- Charles Simic

The plain truth is we are going to die. Here I am, a teeny spec surrounded by boundless space and time, arguing with the whole of creation, shaking m…

- Charles Simic

Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all others were making ships.

- Charles Simic

If I believe in anything, it is in the dark night of the soul. Awe is my religion, and mystery is its church.

- Charles Simic