"Perhaps relationships work more powerfully when there is absence and tension and a lot of heartache. I cant live with people."
Fleur Adcock was a New Zealand poet, editor and translator. Born in Papakura, New Zealand, and raised partly in England, Adcock spent most of her adult life in the United Kingdom, where she became a prominent figure in contemporary poetry. Her work is characterised by wit, a conversational tone and psychological insights, and explores themes of identity, place and the complexities of human relatio
"I write in praise of the solitary act: of not feeling a trespassing tongue forced into ones mouth, ones breath smothered, nipples crushed against the ribcage, and that metallic tingling in the chin set off by a certain odd nerve: unpleasure."
"There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public. There are worse things than these miniature betrayals, committed or endured or suspected; there are worse things than not being able to sleep for thinking about them. It is 5 a.m. All the worse things come stalking in and stand icily about the bed looking worse and worse and worse"
"But now that I am in love with a place which doesn’t care how I look, or if I’m happy,happy is how I look."
"It is 5 a.m. All the worse things come stalking in and stand icily about the bed looking worse and worse and worse."
"I stopped writing poetry when I stopped smoking.... It was more complicated than that."
"Somehow we manage it: to like our friends, to tolerate not only their little ways but their huge neuroses, their monumental oddness: "Oh well," we smile, "its one of his funny days."