Create Yours

Top 20 Stephen Dunn Quotes (2025 Update)

Stephen Dunn Quote: “I was calm, no one wants the kind of calm I was.”

1. “I was calm, no one wants the kind of calm I was.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “All I wanted was a job like a book so good I’d be finishing it for the rest of my life.”

2. “All I wanted was a job like a book so good I’d be finishing it for the rest of my life.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “And the words we find are always insufficient, like love, though they are often lovely and all we have.”

3. “And the words we find are always insufficient, like love, though they are often lovely and all we have.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “I’ve had it with all stingy-hearted sons of bitches. A heart is to be spent.”

4. “I’ve had it with all stingy-hearted sons of bitches. A heart is to be spent.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “I love what’s left after love has been tested.”

5. “I love what’s left after love has been tested.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “Now and again I feel the astonishment of being alive like this, in this body.”

6. “Now and again I feel the astonishment of being alive like this, in this body.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “I’ve tried to become someone else for a while, only to discover that he, too, was me.”

7. “I’ve tried to become someone else for a while, only to discover that he, too, was me.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “I think because my parents died in their early 50s, mid 50s, I always thought I would die young. And that’s been both a useful thing and I suspect something that’s haunted me a little bit.”

8. “I think because my parents died in their early 50s, mid 50s, I always thought I would die young. And that’s been both a useful thing and I suspect something that’s haunted me a little bit.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “I will try to disappoint you better than anyone ever has.”

9. “I will try to disappoint you better than anyone ever has.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “Although I know it’s unfair, I reveal myself one mask at a time.”

10. “Although I know it’s unfair, I reveal myself one mask at a time.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “I’ll always deny that I kissed her. I was just whispering into her mouth.”

11. “I’ll always deny that I kissed her. I was just whispering into her mouth.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “There are always the simple events of your life that you might try to convert into legend.”

12. “There are always the simple events of your life that you might try to convert into legend.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “Connubial Because with alarming accuracy she’d been identifying patterns I was unaware of – this tic, that tendency, like the way I’ve mastered the language of intimacy in order to conceal how I felt – I knew I was in danger of being terribly understood.”

13. “Connubial Because with alarming accuracy she’d been identifying patterns I was unaware of – this tic, that tendency, like the way I’ve mastered the language of intimacy in order to conceal how I felt – I knew I was in danger of being terribly understood.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “Originality, of course, is what occurs when something new arises out of what’s already been done.”

14. “Originality, of course, is what occurs when something new arises out of what’s already been done.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “Better to be furious at one thing, become radiant with purpose. Better to love links and rhythms than all-embracing answers.”

15. “Better to be furious at one thing, become radiant with purpose. Better to love links and rhythms than all-embracing answers.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “Isn’t there a curious elegance in how one moment passes into another?”

16. “Isn’t there a curious elegance in how one moment passes into another?”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “I make myself up from everything I am, or could be. For many years I was more desire than fact. When I stop becoming, that’s when I worry.”

17. “I make myself up from everything I am, or could be. For many years I was more desire than fact. When I stop becoming, that’s when I worry.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “Finally, what I want from poetry is akin to what Flaubert wanted from novels. He thought they should make us dream. I want a poem, through its precisions and accuracies, to make me remember what I know, or what I might have known if I hadn’t been constrained by convention or habit.”

18. “Finally, what I want from poetry is akin to what Flaubert wanted from novels. He thought they should make us dream. I want a poem, through its precisions and accuracies, to make me remember what I know, or what I might have known if I hadn’t been constrained by convention or habit.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “Your poem effectively begins at the first moment you’ve surprised or startled yourself. Throw away everything that preceded that moment, and begin with that moment.”

19. “Your poem effectively begins at the first moment you’ve surprised or startled yourself. Throw away everything that preceded that moment, and begin with that moment.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “All good poems are victories over something.”

20. “All good poems are victories over something.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “I don’t think I’d complain if I were overrated.”

21. “I don’t think I’d complain if I were overrated.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “Too many poets are insufficiently interested in story. Their poems could be improved if they gave in more to the strictures of fiction: the establishment of a clear dramatic situation, and a greater awareness that first-person narrators are also characters and must be treated as such by their authors. The true lyric poet, of course, is exempt from this. But many poets wrongly think they are lyric poets.”

22. “Too many poets are insufficiently interested in story. Their poems could be improved if they gave in more to the strictures of fiction: the establishment of a clear dramatic situation, and a greater awareness that first-person narrators are also characters and must be treated as such by their authors. The true lyric poet, of course, is exempt from this. But many poets wrongly think they are lyric poets.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “When people praise a poem that I can’t understand I always think they’re lying.”

23. “When people praise a poem that I can’t understand I always think they’re lying.”

— Stephen Dunn

Stephen Dunn Quote: “When I stop becoming, that’s when I worry.”

24. “When I stop becoming, that’s when I worry.”

— Stephen Dunn

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Positive Quotes

Positive Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

Albert Einstein Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS INSPIRATIONAL

Steve Jobs Quotes

Steve Jobs Quotes

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS APPLE

Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

COURAGE MOTIVATIONAL STRENGTH

INSPIRATIONAL SUCCESS MOTIVATIONAL

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

LIFE SPIRITUALITY

Save image...
Permalink
Open in new tab
Copy quote text

Beautiful Wallpapers and Images

We hope you enjoyed our collection of 20 Stephen Dunn Quotes.

All the images on this page were created with QuoteFancy Studio.

Use QuoteFancy Studio to create high-quality images for your desktop backgrounds, blog posts, presentations, social media, videos, posters, and more.

Thank you!

Please check your email.