A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.
– Marianne Moore
Any writer overwhelmingly honest about pleasing himself is almost sure to please others.
– Marianne Moore
As contagion of sickness makes sickness, contagion of trust can make trust.
– Marianne Moore
Egotism is usually subversive of sagacity.
– Marianne Moore
If technique is of no interest to a writer, I doubt that the writer is an artist.
– Marianne Moore
In a poem the excitement has to maintain itself. I am governed by the pull of the sentence as the pull of a fabric is governed by gravity.
– Marianne Moore
It is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing.
– Marianne Moore
My father used to say superior people never make long visits.
– Marianne Moore
Poetry is all nouns and verbs.
– Marianne Moore
Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.
– Marianne Moore
The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease.
– Marianne Moore
There never was a war that was not inward; I must fight till I have conquered in myself what causes war.
– Marianne Moore
War is pillage versus resistance and if illusions of magnitude could be transmuted into ideals of magnanimity, peace might be realized.
– Marianne Moore
We are suffering from too much sarcasm.
– Marianne Moore
When one cannot appraise out of one's own experience, the temptation to blunder is minimized, but even when one can, appraisal seems chiefly useful as appraisal of the appraiser.
– Marianne Moore
I see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which to put it.