All My Pretty Ones Quotes

“Our eyes are full of terrible confessions.”
― Anne Sexton, All My Pretty Ones

“The snow has quietness in it; no songs,
no smells, no shouts or traffic.
When I speak
my own voice shocks me.”
― Anne Sexton, All My Pretty Ones

“Need is not quite belief.”
― Anne Sexton, All My Pretty Ones

“Tuesday

I have invented a lie.
There is no other day but Monday.
It seemed reasonable to pretend
that I could change the day
like a pair of socks.
To tell the truth
days are all the same size
and words aren't much company.
If I were sick, I'd be a child,
tucked in under the woolens, sipping my broth.
As it is,
the days are not worth grabbing or lying about.
Nevertheless, you are the only one
that I can bother with this matter.

Monday

It would be pleasant to be drunk:
faithless to my tongue and hands,
giving up the boundaries
for the heroic gin.
Dead drunk
is the term I think of,
insensible,
neither cool nor warm,
without a head or foot.
To be drunk is to be intimate with a fool.
I will try it shortly.”
― Anne Sexton, All My Pretty Ones

“If this is hell, then hell could not be much,
neither as special nor as ugly as I was told.”
― Anne Sexton, All My Pretty Ones