Quotes from The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New, 1950-1984

Adrienne Rich ·  358 pages

Rating: (2.8K votes)


“Sleeping. Turning in turn like planets rotating in their midnight meadow: a touch is enough to let us know we're not alone in the universe, even in sleep.”
― Adrienne Rich, quote from The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New, 1950-1984


“I am an instrument in the shape/ of a woman trying to translate pulsations/ into images for the relief of the body/ and the reconstruction of the mind.”
― Adrienne Rich, quote from The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New, 1950-1984


“A language is a map of our failures”
― Adrienne Rich, quote from The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New, 1950-1984


“We lie under the sheet
after making love, speaking
of loneliness
relieved in a book
relived in a book
so on that page
the clot and fissure
of it appears
words of a man
in pain
a naked word
entering the clot
a hand grasping
through bars:

deliverance

What happens between us
has happened for centuries
we know it from literature

still it happens

sexual jealousy
outflung hand
beating bed

dryness of mouth
after panting

there are books that describe all this
and they are useless”
― Adrienne Rich, quote from The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New, 1950-1984


“A dream of tenderness
wrestles with all I know of history”
― Adrienne Rich, quote from The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New, 1950-1984



About the author

Adrienne Rich
Born place: in Baltimore, Maryland, The United States
Born date May 16, 1929
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“During the years that both Stalin and Hitler were in power, more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else in the bloodlands, or in Europe, or in the world.”
― Timothy Snyder, quote from Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin


“He aquí por qué no tenemos tiempo para pensar en la filosofía; y el mayor de nuestros males consiste en que en el acto de tener tiempo y ponernos a meditar, de repente interviene el cuerpo en nuestras indagaciones, nos embaraza, nos turba y no nos deja discernir la verdad.”
― Plato, quote from Phaedo


“She was only a few yards from the door. If she lunged, she could be safely inside with solid metal between her and the bear. But she had called to him, and he had come. The tranquilizer dart that she had shot on the sea ice now lay in front of her. Impossibly, inexplicably, the bear had brought it back to her. She felt light-headed, and she knew she was shaking. She raised her eyes to look at the bear.

He was a mass of shadows at the edge of the station floodlights. She could make out the shape of his muzzle and the hunch of his shoulders. "Cassandra Dasent," he said. His voice was a soft rumble.

She felt as if her heart had stopped beating.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, quote from Ice


“Udell was an ordinary man, I thought, but a man with an extraordinary way of thinking. That was truly worth more than gold: extraordinary thinking.”
― Nancy E. Turner, quote from The Star Garden


“لا بد من تعلّم أن يكون الإنسان رفيقًا طيبًا لنفسه.”
― Gioconda Belli, quote from The Inhabited Woman


Interesting books

My Life with the Walter Boys
(16.2K)
My Life with the Wal...
by Ali Novak
The Enchanted
(15K)
The Enchanted
by Rene Denfeld
Fruits Basket, Vol. 7
(16.8K)
Fruits Basket, Vol....
by Natsuki Takaya
Pale Horse, Pale Rider
(1.8K)
Pale Horse, Pale Rid...
by Katherine Anne Porter
Desolation Island
(10.2K)
Desolation Island
by Patrick O'Brian
A Bride Most Begrudging
(11.4K)
A Bride Most Begrudg...
by Deeanne Gist

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.