Poetry Quote by Ocean Vuong — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“Some nights you are the lighthouse / some nights the sea / what this means is that I don't know / desire other than the need / to be shattered & rebuilt / the mind forgetting / the body's crime of living”

“To be alive and try to be a decent person, and not turn into anything big or grand, that's the hardest thing of all. You think being president is hard? Ha. Don't you see that every president becomes a millionaire after he leaves office? If you can be nobody, and stand on your own two feet for as long as I have, that's enough. Look at my girl, all that talent and for what, just to drown in Bud Light?" [...] "People don't know what's enough, Labas. That's their problem. They think they suffer, but they're really just bored. They don't eat enough carrots.”

“What were you before you met me?”

“God must be a season, grandma said, looking out at the blizzard drowning”

“A page, turning, is a wing lifted with no twin, and therefore no flight. And yet we are moved.”

“If we ever make it to shore, he says, I will name our son after this water. I will learn to love a monster”

“You do not have to be good.”

“நின்னை சரணடைந்தேன், கண்ணம்மா”

“There is nothing”

“There was also something about the smell of bookshops that was strangely comforting to her. She wondered if it was the scent of ink and paper, or the perfume of binding, string, and glue. Maybe it was the scent of knowledge. Information. Thoughts and ideas. Poetry and love. All of it bound into one perfect, calm place.”

“E andando nel sole che abbaglia”

“Dogfish”