Top 90 Sarah Kay Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent.”

— Sarah Kay

2. “Life will hit you hard in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.”

— Sarah Kay

Featured in: Life is Hard Quotes, Stay Strong Quotes, You Got This Quotes, Survival Quotes, Life Quotes for Women

3. “I have seen the best of you, and the worst of you, and I choose both.”

— Sarah Kay

4. “Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.”

— Sarah Kay

5. “And know this: Know you are the type of woman who is searching for a place to call yours. Let the statues crumble. You have always been the place. You are a woman who can build it yourself. You were born to build.”

— Sarah Kay

6. “Forgive yourself for the decisions you have made, the ones you still call mistakes when you tuck them in at night.”

— Sarah Kay

7. “No matter your wreckage. There will be someone to find you beautiful, despite the cruddy metal. Your ruin is not to be hidden behind paint and canvas. Let them see the cracks. Someone will come to sing into these empty spaces.”

— Sarah Kay

8. “Remember that good things come in threes and so do bad things and always apologize when you’ve done something wrong but don’t you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining.”

— Sarah Kay

9. “Artistry is important. Skill, hard work, rewriting, editing, and careful, careful craft: All of these are necessary. These are what separate the beginners from experienced artists.”

— Sarah Kay

Featured in: Artist Quotes

10. “This world is made out of sugar. It can crumble so easily but don’t be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it.”

— Sarah Kay

11. “There is hurt that cannot be fixed by band aids or poetrybecause no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

— Sarah Kay

12. “Still now I send letters into space Hoping that some mailman somewhere will track you down And recognise you from the descriptions in my poems That he will place the stack of them in your hands and tell you, There is a girl who still writes you, she doesn’t know how not to.”

— Sarah Kay

13. “I use poetry to help me work through what I don’t understand, but I show up to each new poem with a backpack full of everywhere else that I’ve been.”

— Sarah Kay

14. “It does not matter how strong your gravity is, we were always meant to fly.”

— Sarah Kay

Featured in: Strong Quotes

15. “Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent. Repeat the same mistakes over and over, and you don’t get any closer to Carnegie Hall.”

— Sarah Kay

16. “I write poems to figure things out.”

— Sarah Kay

17. “If I should have a daughter, instead of Mom, she’s gonna call me Point B, because that way she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me.”

— Sarah Kay

18. “It’s not just the adage ‘write what you know,’ it’s about gathering up all of the knowledge and experience you’ve collected up to now to help you dive into the things you don’t know.”

— Sarah Kay

19. “Most days it feels as if the world is whirling around me and I am standing still. In slow motion, I watch the colors blur; people and faces all become a massive wash.”

— Sarah Kay

20. “My self-confidence can be measured out in teaspoons mixed into my poetry, and it still always tastes funny in my mouth.”

— Sarah Kay

21. “Not all poetry wants to be storytelling. And not all storytelling wants to be poetry. But great storytellers and great poets share something in common: They had something to say, and did.”

— Sarah Kay

22. “You are not made of metaphors, Not apologies, not excuses.”

— Sarah Kay

23. “Things that I have a hard time being able to fully grasp, sometimes writing the poem helps me work through it. Or I get to the end of the poem and I still haven’t figured anything out, but at least I have a new poem out of it.”

— Sarah Kay

24. “Some people read palms to tell your future, but I read hands to tell your past. Each scar makes a story worth telling. Each callused palm, each cracked knuckle is a missed punch or years in a factory.”

— Sarah Kay

25. “Hands learn more than minds do, hands learn how to hold other hands...”

— Sarah Kay

26. “You can only fit so many words in a postcard, only so many in a phone call, only so many into space before you forget that words are sometimes used for things other than filling emptiness.”

— Sarah Kay

27. “It is December, and nobody asked if I was ready.”

— Sarah Kay

28. “I will love you with too many commas, but never any asterisks.”

— Sarah Kay

29. “Spoken word teaches that if you have the ability to express yourself and the courage to present those stories and opinions, you could be rewarded with a room full of your peers or your community who will listen.”

— Sarah Kay

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

30. “It is hard to stop loving the ocean. Even after it has left you gasping, salty.”

— Sarah Kay

31. “If loving you means getting dirty, bring on the grime.”

— Sarah Kay

32. “Hands learn. More than minds do.”

— Sarah Kay

33. “Poetry is like a puzzle-solving strategy for me. I like to poem my way through tricky questions and ideas. That’s about the only consistent thread through my poem-creation process.”

— Sarah Kay

34. “Because rain will wash away everything, if you let it.”

— Sarah Kay

35. “The first spoken word poem I ever wrote was when I was 14 and I wrote it because I was accidentally signed up for a teen poetry slam. Because I loved poetry I said that I’d try it out.”

— Sarah Kay

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

36. “Fingers interlocked like a beautiful accordion of flesh or a zipper of prayer.”

— Sarah Kay

37. “Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.”

— Sarah Kay

38. “You have taken to wearing around your father’s hand-me-down anger. I wish that you wouldn’t.”

— Sarah Kay

39. “My world was the size of a crayon box, and it took every colour to draw her.”

— Sarah Kay

40. “Be careful, darling. Your footsteps land heavy here. Your racket will wake the dragons.”

— Sarah Kay

41. “If he leaves you with a car alarm heart, you learn to sing along.”

— Sarah Kay

42. “I love books that create worlds for me that I don’t want to leave. I recently lost my entire life to Haruki Murakami – 1Q84. I tell people that book ruined my life in the best possible way. I couldn’t think of anything else for weeks after I read it.”

— Sarah Kay

43. “I tilted my head, looked into the distance. I don’t even notice you falling in love with me, I practiced to the mirror. I am too preoccupied with what I am doing. Nobody wants to be noticed when they are falling in love. It is a private moment. Whoever was falling in love with me, I reasoned, deserved not to be disturbed.”

— Sarah Kay

44. “I want to welcome folks to poetry, especially those who may have previously felt unwelcome; I want to celebrate everyone who is trying to make sense of this world through poetry the way I try to.”

— Sarah Kay

45. “I didn’t tell him that even after a crash, a key still fits the ignition. There just isn’t anything left to drive.”

— Sarah Kay

46. “When you fall in love, it is discovering the ocean after years of puddle jumping.”

— Sarah Kay

47. “When words become a poem, it makes sense to me, but I don’t know how to explain to someone why the words are the way they are. It’s just the logic of the poem to me.”

— Sarah Kay

48. “I do like celebrating women, I do like celebrating different lifestyles and choices and people and it makes me happy when others find my work empowering.”

— Sarah Kay

49. “I write poetry to figure things out. Any time I’m trying to wrap my head around something, poetry is like a puzzle-solving strategy for me.”

— Sarah Kay

50. “There are parts of me I only recognize from photographs.”

— Sarah Kay