Top 180 Richard Siken Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “The trees in wind, the streetlights on, the click and flash of cigarettes being smoked on the lawn, and just a little kiss before we say goodnight. It spins like a wheel inside you: green-yellow, green-blue, green beautiful green. It’s simple: it isn’t over, it’s just begun. It’s green. It’s still green.”

— Richard Siken

152. “When he throws the wrench into the air it will catch the light as it spins toward you. Look – it looks like a star.”

— Richard Siken

153. “I want what everyone wants.”

— Richard Siken

154. “We could pull it apart, spend our whole lives pulling it apart and have no time left to do anything smart with the pieces.”

— Richard Siken

155. “Tell me we’ll never get used to it.”

— Richard Siken

156. “Knot the tie and go to work. Unknot the tie and go to sleep.”

— Richard Siken

157. “I had four dreams in a row where you were burned, about to burn, or still on fire.”

— Richard Siken

158. “You were very beautiful.”

— Richard Siken

159. “A man found a door and hung it on the wall.”

— Richard Siken

160. “History throws its shadow over the beginning.”

— Richard Siken

161. “I put on my best shirt because the painting looked so bad. Color bleeds, so make it work for you. Gravity pulls, so make it work for you. Rubbing your feet at night or clutching your stomach in the morning. It was illegible – no single line of sight, too many angles of approach, smoke in the distance. It made no sense. When you have nothing to say, set something on fire. A blurry landscape is useless.”

— Richard Siken

162. “The body swerves in the service of the mind, which is evidence of the mind but not actual proof.”

— Richard Siken

163. “Do you want it? Do you want anything I have?”

— Richard Siken

164. “Something has happened in the paint tonight and it is worth keeping.”

— Richard Siken

165. “It isn’t over yet, it’s just begun.”

— Richard Siken

166. “People fall down and stay down.”

— Richard Siken

167. “You do the math, you expect the trouble.”

— Richard Siken

168. “The world doesn’t know what to do with my love. Because it isn’t used to being loved. It’s a framework problem.”

— Richard Siken

169. “Forget about his insides, his plumbing and his furnaces, put a thing in his hand and be done with it. No one wants to know what’s in his head. It should be enough. To make something beautiful should be enough. It isn’t. It should be.”

— Richard Siken

170. “Will you throw me to the ground like you mean it.”

— Richard Siken

171. “Disappear and save everyone the bother of a dark suit.”

— Richard Siken

172. “There’s a thing in my stomach about this. A simple thing. The last rung.”

— Richard Siken

173. “There’s only one thing I want, don’t make me say it.”

— Richard Siken

174. “A man walks into a bar and says: Take my wife–please. But you take him instead.”

— Richard Siken

175. “You were burned, you were about to burn, you’re still on fire.”

— Richard Siken

176. “You had expected something else, anything else.”

— Richard Siken

177. “These are the dreams we should be having.”

— Richard Siken

178. “This time everyone has the best intentions. You have cancer.”

— Richard Siken

179. “There is no way to make this story interesting.”

— Richard Siken

180. “This dream going on with all of us in it.”

— Richard Siken

181. “I cut off my head and threw it in the sky.”

— Richard Siken

182. “Explaining will get us nowhere.”

— Richard Siken

183. “We were in the Safeway parking lot. I couldn’t find my cigarettes. You said, “Hurry up!” but I was worried there would be a hold-up and we would be stuck in a hostage situation, hiding behind the frozen meats, with nothing to smoke for hours. You said “Don’t be silly,” so I followed you into the store. We were thumping the melons when I heard somebody say, “Nobody move!” I leaned over and whispered in your ear, “I told you so.”

— Richard Siken

184. “And you feel like you’ve done something terrible, like robbed a liquor store, or swallowed pills, or shoveled yourself a grave in the dirt, and you’re tired.”

— Richard Siken

185. “We can do anything. It’s not because our hearts are large, they’re not, it’s what we struggle with.”

— Richard Siken

186. “Accidents never happen when the room is empty.”

— Richard Siken