Poetry Quote by J.M. Coetzee — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“You are going to end up as one of those sad old men who poke around in rubbish bins.”

“I want to find a way of speaking to fellow human beings that will be cool rather than heated, philosophical rather than polemical, that will bring enlightenment rather than seeking to divide us into the righteous and the sinners, the saved and the damned, the sheep and the goats.”

“I truly believe I am not afraid of death. What I shrink from, I believe, is the shame of dying as stupid and befuddled as I am.”

“In a world of chance is there a better and a worse? We yield to a stranger's embrace or give ourselves to the waves; for the blink of an eyelid our vigilance relaxes; we are asleep; and when we awake, we have lost the direction of our lives. What are these blinks of an eyelid, against which the only defence is an eternal and inhuman wakefulness? Might they not be the cracks and chinks through which another voice, other voices, speak in our lives? By what right do we close our ears to them?”

“I do believe in poetry. I believe that there are creatures endowed with the power to put things together and bring them back to life”

“Were knowledge all, what were our need”

“...they come to us, these restless dead,”

“How does a poet know when a poem is ended? Because it lies flat, taut; nothing can be added or subtracted. How does a woman know when a marriage is over? Because of the way her life suddenly shears off in just two directions: past and future.”

“Democracy! Bah! When I hear that I reach for my feather boa!”

“Poetry is life distilled.”