The best Quotes by Eugenio Montale

Poetry is the art which is technically within the grasp of everyone: a piece of paper and a pencil and one is ready.

I have been judged to be a pessimist but what abyss of ignorance and low egoism is not hidden in one who thinks that Man is the god of himself and that his future can only be triumphant?

In reality art is always for everyone and for no one.

Man cannot produce a single work without the assistance of the slow, assiduous, corrosive worm of thought.

I do not go in search of poetry. I wait for poetry to visit me.

Poetry is a way of looking at the world for the first time.

For poetry, more than any other art, except music, has a compelling hold upon the spiritual side of life.

Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.

Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.

Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.

Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations.

Poetry, she thought, wasn't written to be analyzed, it was meant to inspire without reason, to touch without understanding.

A living poem had always been the words that came to mind when he tried to describe her to others.

Writing is something you do alone. Its a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact while doing it.

Trying to write about love is ultimately like trying to have a dictionary represent life. No matter how many words there are, there will never be enough.

Word to the wise writer: never underestimate your secondary characters! But watch them... they sneak off with stuff.

Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.

A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.

Philippe: "Tell me Driss, why do you think people are interested in art?"
Driss: "I don't know, it's a business?"
Philippe: "No. That's because it's the only thing one leaves behind."

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.

Artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up.

Art is a way of survival.

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

A picture means I know where I was every minute. That's why I take pictures. It's a visual diary.

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.

Act on inspiration when it strikes.

Success is one part inspiration, nine parts desperation.

Coming up with ideas is the easiest thing on earth. Putting them down is the hardest.

Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.

Ideas seem to come from everywhere - my life, everything I see, hear, and read, and most of all, from my imagination. I have a lot of imagination.

Surround yourself with people and things that inspire you. Learn everything you can.

Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.

A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.

One candidate is too old and mentally unfit to be president. The other one is me.

What do you call an Asian Dwayne Johnson?
The Wok.

I'm paranoid. On my stationary bike, I have a rear view mirror.

When you're in love it's the most glorious two and a half days of your life.