Vita Nova Quotes

“The master said You must write what you see.
But what I see does not move me.
The master answered Change what you see.”
― Louise Glück, Vita Nova: Winner of the Nobel Prize

“The world
was whole because
it shattered. When it shattered,
then we knew what it was.”
― Louise Glück, Vita Nova: Winner of the Nobel Prize

“I had two desires: desire
to be safe and desire to feel.”
― Louise Glück, Vita Nova: Winner of the Nobel Prize

“I thought my life was over and my heart was broken.

Then I moved to Cambridge.”
― Louise Glück, Vita Nova: Winner of the Nobel Prize

“be a brave dog - this is all material”
― Louise Glück, Vita Nova: Winner of the Nobel Prize

“I hate when your own dreams treat you as stupid.”
― Louise Glück, Vita Nova: Winner of the Nobel Prize

“It was never focus that was missing,
it was meaning.”
― Louise Glück, Vita Nova: Winner of the Nobel Prize

“In its emptiness the world

was whole always, not
a chip of something, with
the self at the center.

And at the center of the self,
grief I thought I couldn't survive.”
― Louise Glück, Vita Nova: Winner of the Nobel Prize

“I have lost my Eurydice / I have lost my lover / and suddenly I am speaking French / and it seems to me I have never been in better voice.”
― Louise Glück, Vita Nova: Winner of the Nobel Prize

“His gaze touched me
before his hands touched me.”
― Louise Glück, Vita Nova: Winner of the Nobel Prize