25 Anne Carson Quotes From the Canadian Poet and Professor

Take a look at these Anne Carson quotes to learn more about this accomplished poet, essayist, and professor.

Anne Carson was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1950.

She currently lives with her husband in Iceland, where she and her husband were granted citizenship in 2022.

Anne Carson is a renowned poet, author, and professor who has taught at multiple universities in Canada and the United States.

Her teachings focus on the classics as well as creative writing.

In addition to teaching, Anne has published over twenty books and won multiple awards, including the Lannan Literary Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize.

She is known for intertwining ideas from different fields and the influence of classical and modern writers in her writings.

Take a look at these Anne Carson quotes to learn more about this successful woman.

Best Anne Carson Quotes

Enjoy and reflect on some of the best Anne Carson quotes.

1. “When I desire you, a part of me is gone.” — Ann Carson

2. “Desire moves. Eros is a verb.” — Ann Carson

3. “The present tense of regret is indecision.” — Ann Carson

4. “Reality is a sound; you have to tune in to it, not just keep yelling.” — Ann Carson

5. “What is memory but a language that lacks nouns?” — Ann Carson

6. “A woman’s beauty is a way of speaking when her mouth is shut.” — Ann Carson

7. “Pain has no body, but travels inside bodies.” — Ann Carson

8. “The mind is slippery. Facts are, in general, the most reliable form of fiction.” — Ann Carson

9. “The end of suffering is a long, complex process. You don’t just snap out of it.” — Ann Carson

10. “The beauty of the world… has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.” — Ann Carson

Anne Carson Quotes to Make You Think

See what you think about these Anne Carson quotes.

11. “The past is a hold in the present.” — Ann Carson

12. “Why are you full of rage? Because you are full of grief.” — Ann Carson

13. “Nothing has ever been said about longing that equals what it feels like.” — Ann Carson

14. “To think of someone as a lost and wandering soul is to imagine them capable of being found.” — Ann Carson

15. “Desire is not lack or deprivation. It is a surplus of energy, a celebration of life, a willingness to risk.” — Ann Carson

16. “In the interval between reach and grasp, between glance and counter glance, between ‘I love you’ and ‘I love you too,’ the absent presence of desire comes alive.” — Ann Carson

17. “We are only midway through the central verse of our youth when we see ourselves begin to blacken… We had been seduced into thinking that we were immortal, and suddenly the affair is over.” — Ann Carson

Anne Carson Quotes Showing Her Thoughts and Opinions

These quotes introduce you to more of Carson’s perspectives and thoughts on life.

18. “Perfection is less interesting.” — Ann Carson

19. “Desire doubled is love, and love doubled is madness.” — Ann Carson

20. “We participate in the creation of the world by correlating ourselves.” — Ann Carson

21. “Time isn’t made of anything. It is an abstraction. Just a meaning that we impose upon motion.” — Ann Carson

22. “Hardness and strength are death’s companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win.” — Ann Carson

23. “The question is not whether you will love, hurt, dream, or die. It is what you will love, why you will hurt, when you will dream, and how you will die.” — Ann Carson

24. “There are different gradations of personhood in different poems. Some of them seem far away from me, and some up close, and the up-close ones generally don’t say what I want them to say.” — Ann Carson

25. “Adjectives seem fairly innocent additions but look again. These small imported mechanisms are in charge of attaching everything in the world to its place in particularity. They are the latches of being.” — Ann Carson

Anne Carson’s Personal Life

Anne is guarded about her personal life but has been married twice, currently to Robert Currie.

Many of her writings are influenced by events in her personal life, such as her father’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease, her mother’s death, her brother’s disappearance and death, and her first marriage.

Please share these Anne Carson quotes with your friends and family and post any comments about Anne in the comment section below.