As things get worse, poetry gets better because it becomes more necessary.

— Eileen Myles

If passion was a substance I would say it is dark brown, and then blood-red. It's like wet grass, tons of it soaked in mud. It's warm, and it stinks like shit, and it's unaccountably and endlessly good. Furthermore, it's thick, and it goes on for miles, and it isn't so much deep as bottomless, and it holds you in its grip, you never drown. And then it goes. That's all you know.

— Eileen Myles

If the poetry world celebrates its female stars at the true level of their productivity and influence, poetry would wind up being a largely female world, and the men would leave.

— Eileen Myles

In Arlington, people would laugh at you if you tried to get people to look at your drawings or listen to your poetry. It was like you thought you were special.

— Eileen Myles

I wasn't afraid of being poor. I didn't want to live in a big house. Furthermore, I'm the perfect size for poetry. Furthermore, I can move around.

— Eileen Myles

Literature is love. I think it went like this: drawings in the cave, sounds in the cave, songs in the cave, songs about us. Later, stories about us. Part of what we always did was have sex and fight about it and break each other’s hearts. I guess there are other kinds of love too. Great friendships. Working together. But poetry and novels are lists of our devotions. We love the feel of making the marks as the feelings are rising and falling. Living in literature and love is the best thing there is. You’re always home.

— Eileen Myles

Poetry always, always, always is a key piece of democracy.

— Eileen Myles

Poetry and novels are lists of our devotions. We love the feel of making the marks as the feelings are rising and falling.

— Eileen Myles

Poetry from the bottom up is an act of selection: you kind of feel your way through the crowds of poems. The good ones came forward a long time ago, and the bad ones fell away.

— Eileen Myles

Sometimes in utter hopelessness I put my cheek on the table like it was someone. I wanted to wake my brain up and be loved.

— Eileen Myles