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

“Oh.' A syllable can express a great deal. Will's sounded of resignation but also of swear words, and the smell of rotting vegetation, and wary amusement and bitten fingernails.”
― Katherine Rundell, quote from The Girl Savage


“Humming the Star Wars theme to encourage myself, I wobbled onto my feet. Sometimes a girl's gotta provide her own trumpet-heavy heroic soundtrack.”
― Shannon Hale, quote from Dangerous


“Can I call you Fozzie?”
“Can I call you Evelyn?”
“Not if you want me to answer.”
“It’s safe to say, the same goes for calling me Fozzie. I’m not a Muppet.”
― Renee Ericson, quote from More Than Water


“Adieu the clang of war’s alarms! To other deeds my soul is strung, And sweeter notes shall now be sung; My harp shall all its powers reveal, To tell the tale my heart must feel; Love, Love alone, my lyre shall claim, In songs of bliss and sighs of flame.”
― Kathleen Baldwin, quote from Mistaken Kiss


“Only a short time ago, I learned that people laughed at me. Now I can see that unknowingly I joined them in laughing at myself. That hurts the most.”
― Daniel Keyes, quote from Des fleurs pour Algernon


Interesting books

Corelli's Mandolin
(68.1K)
Corelli's Mandolin
by Louis de Bernières
The Bad Beginning
(315.1K)
The Bad Beginning
by Lemony Snicket
Papillon
(45.4K)
Papillon
by Henri Charrière
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
(145.1K)
Aristotle and Dante...
by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
A Wizard of Earthsea
(178.3K)
A Wizard of Earthsea
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Love Story
(46.7K)
Love Story
by Erich Segal

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.