Things explain each other, not themselves.

- George Oppen

The self is no mystery, the mystery is / That there is something for us to stand on

- George Oppen

A pure mathematical series would be one in which each term is derived from the preceding term by a rule.

- George Oppen

The meaning of a poem is in the cadences and the shape of the lines and the pulse of the thought which is given by those lines.

- George Oppen

There are situations which cannot honorably be met by art.

- George Oppen

Those who are not very concerned with art want poems or pictures to record for them something they already know - as one might want a picture of a pl…

- George Oppen

Clarity, clarity, surely clarity is the most beautiful thing in the world, A limited, limiting clarity I have not and never did have any motive of po…

- George Oppen

It is necessary to study these words you have written, for the words have a longer history than you have and say more than you know.

- George Oppen

The first question at that time in poetry was simply the question of honesty, of sincerity.

- George Oppen