Afua Hirsch Quotes

Unless the church is equipping believers to embrace the values and vision of the kingdom of God and turn away from the materialism, consumerism, greed, and power of the present age, it not only abandons its biblical mandate, it is rendered missionally ineffective. ~ Alan Hirsch

If you had told me, though, when I was twenty-four that I would write about Skokie, Illinois, where I grew up, I would have said, 'You're out of your mind. Why would I have Skokie in a poem?' But you become resigned. Your job is to write about the life you actually have. ~ Edward Hirsch

When poetry separates from song, then the words have to carry all the rhythm themselves; they have to do all the work. They can't rely on the singing voice. ~ Edward Hirsch

At some point preoccupation with safety can get in the way of living full lives. ~ Alan Hirsch

It struck Glenn how their whole life had been made up of such little things. ~ Jeff Hirsch

When you're reading Thoreau you look at Hollywood differently, let me tell ya! ~ Emile Hirsch

Judgments about who belongs in the Hall of Fame are extremely subjective. ~ Alan Hirsch

I'm sure that if Plato hadn't been against music with a strong sexual beat, Bloom would have kept quiet about rock-and-roll. ~ E.D. Hirsch Jr.

I'm aware of being a stranger, an outsider, and that's always an advantage for an artist. It means I can see from the inside and the outside. I have that double vision. ~ John Hirsch

We all knew where the goop originated and could have defended ourselves, but the origin of the fusillade doubled as the center of the action. Once the baby's scalp protruded, we all hunkered down and braced ourselves. ~ David Z. Hirsch

I had feelings that I didn't know what to do with, and I felt better when I started writing them. I thought of it as poetry. I did notice girls really liked it. Better than football. They liked the combination. ~ Edward Hirsch

Humans need simple answers for complex problems. ~ Lawrence J. Hirsch

Your family, even though you love them, they can get on your nerves. You spend so much time together. ~ Alex Hirsch

I think the deepest thing is that many fiction writers tell stories but are not elegant writers. But, we're not writing journalism when we're making literature. ~ Edward Hirsch

What else are there but rituals
To cover up the emptiness
O Disbelief

Lord Nothingness
When my son's suffering ended
My own began

Why did the sun rise this morning
It's not natural
I don't want to see the light

It's not time to close the casket
Or say Kaddish for my son
I've already buried two fathers

With a mother to come
Isn't that enough Lord who wants us
To exalt and sanctify Him

I don't want to wear the mourner's ribbon
Or wake up crying every morning
For God knows how long

I don't want to tuck my son into the ground
As if we were putting him to bed
For the last time ~ Edward Hirsch

During the years of struggling to make partner, he had sometimes entertained the comical notion that making partner would imbue him with new powers, like a budding superhero who had been bitten by a radioactive spider. It appeared that any superpowers he had gained did not include the ability to pick up women in bars. ~ Reece Hirsch

The poets needed to learn to pay greater attention to character and to narrative. ~ Edward Hirsch

Mission is the practical demonstration, whether by speech or by action, of the glorious lordship of Jesus. ~ Alan Hirsch

The genres are widening. I don't think that there's as many limitations on the kinds of projects that actors can do as there once was. ~ Emile Hirsch

In order to develop a pioneering missional spirit, a capacity for genuine ecclesial innovation, let along engender daring discipleship, we are going to need the capacity to take a courageous stand when and where necessary. ~ Alan Hirsch

There have always been great defenses of poetry, and I've tried to write mine, and I think all of my work and criticism is a defense of poetry to try and keep something alive in poetry. ~ Edward Hirsch

So, some of the most difficult formal poems that I've written, say one sentence sonnets, I've been able to do those fairly quickly whereas some of the clearest, simplest lyrics that I've written have taken me the longest to get to the clarity of feeling that you're looking for. ~ Edward Hirsch

Some people could say, "I'd like something that's super dramatic and miserable and made me cry and made me sad forever" but that's not my taste. ~ Alex Hirsch

I've realized that what you think of when you make a 'big movie,' if it's actually a green screen movie, it's like doing independent New York theater because you don't have any backgrounds or props. So it's kind of like making the lowest budgeted film you could possibly imagine, plus $100 million. ~ Emile Hirsch

If we are going to make the change from community to communitas, and not just end up with an unsustainable adrenaline-junkie culture, we must have a sophisticated process to form people into adventurer-disciples. ~ Alan Hirsch

Civil religion gives American culture its direction and defines its fundamental values, but it does not determine the diversified contents of American national culture. ~ Edward Hirsch

James Dean taught me not to speed, River Phoenix taught me not to DO speed, and Marlon Brando taught me to slow down on the cheeseburgers. ~ Emile Hirsch

Sometimes I have a feeling that I just can't get rid of. Sometimes there's an experience that I want to write about that I have to get off my chest. Sometimes there are some words that appeal to you. ~ Edward Hirsch

It is vital to see ourselves as part of an ongoing journey started by our heroes in the Scriptures. ~ Alan Hirsch

What did it feel like?"(Glenn)
"A dream, kind of, You know? The ones that are so real you wake up and wonder if they really happened. And then for the whole day, you walk around in this fog like ... pieces of it are clinging to you and won't let go.(Kevin) ~ Jeff Hirsch

Gertrude Stein said, "I write for myself and strangers." I would say I write for myself, strangers and the great dead. ~ Edward Hirsch

But, that was the beginning, though I didn't start writing until I was in high school and when I was in high school I really began to write poetry with great energy and enthusiasm. ~ Edward Hirsch

I think in terms of educating a group of readers, MFA programs are very good. I just think the model of MFA programs in which a young poet goes through the program, publishes a series of books, gets teaching jobs, that's a bit at risk. ~ Edward Hirsch

There is no true poetry without conscious craft, absorbed attention, absolute concentration. There is no true poetry without unconscious invention. The reader, too, enters into the relationship between the controlled and the uncontrollable aspects of the art. Shelley says that 'Poetry redeems from decay the visitations of the divinity in man.' The poem is a genie that comes out of the bottle to liberate the reader's imagination, the divinity within. The writer and the reader make meaning together. The poet who calls on help from the heavenly muse also does so on behalf of the imaginative reader. ~ Edward Hirsch

I didn't ever consider poetry the province exclusively of English and American literature and I discovered a great amount in reading Polish poetry and other Eastern European poetry and reading Russian poetry and reading Latin American and Spanish poetry and I've always found models in those other poetries of poets who could help me on my path. ~ Edward Hirsch

I've been fascinated over the years by the way refrains work. Think, say, of the refrains in Yeats' ballads. Ideally, each time the refrain comes back in a poem, it is both the same and different. It works by counterpoint and reiteration. It accrues meaning. ~ Edward Hirsch

The idea that a poem was a made thing stayed with me, and I decided then that I wanted to be an artist, not just a diarist. So I put myself through a kind of apprenticeship in writing poetry, and I understood even then that my practice as a poet was deeply related to my reading. ~ Edward Hirsch

And it was the title August 13th for most of the way and then near the end, sometime in the process, I got the idea that maybe that would be a somewhat bland title and I got the idea for wild gratitude, which I'm very proud of as a title. So, I think it works best when you find it in the process. ~ Edward Hirsch

I didn't read poetry seriously until college, when I really began to devour it in a very intense way. I also discovered that a poet is a maker. Before that, I thought a poet was someone who wrote about his own experiences. ~ Edward Hirsch

I've always just loved drawing and loved cartoons. Growing up, I loved Disney films, I loved The Simpsons, and I was a big fan of the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes and the way that they would have weird fantasy and then down-to-earth funny character comedy. ~ Alex Hirsch

I found out the hard way that if we don't disciple people, the culture sure will. ~ Alan Hirsch