Nearly everyone has his box of secret pain, shared with no one.Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose and Diary Excerpts
Author · 17 quotes
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. She is best known for her confessional poetry collection "Ariel" and her semi-autobiographical novel "The Bell Jar," both of which have had a significant impact on modern literature with their raw and introspective exploration of themes such as mental illness, gender roles, and identity. Plath's work continues to be celebrated for its vivid imagery, emotional intensity, and powerful language.
1932–1963·lived 30 years
Nearly everyone has his box of secret pain, shared with no one.Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose and Diary Excerpts
Go out and do something. It isn’t your room that’s a prison, it’s yourself.
So much working, reading thinking, living to do. A lifetime is not long enough.
I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.
My mother had taught shorthand and typing to support us since my father died, and secretly she hated it and hated him for dying and leaving no money because he didn't trust life insurance salesmen.The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 1950-1962, 2000
I think that personal experience is very important, but certainly it shouldn't be a kind of shut-box and mirror-looking, narcissistic experience. I believe it should be relevant, and relevant to the larger things, the bigger things, such as Hiroshima and Dachau and so on.The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, p. 238, 2000
I want to live and feel all the shades, tones, and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, p. 202, 2000
Poetry, I feel, is a tyrannical discipline. You've got to go so far so fast in such a small space; you've got to burn away all the peripherals.Interview with Peter Orr, 1962
But life is long. And it is the long run that balances the short flare of interest and passion.The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, p. 202, 2000
And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, ed. Anchor, 2007
I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.The Bell Jar, p. 64, 1963
I don’t know whether I am extremely sensitive, or whether life is unbearable.The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, ed. Anchor, 2007
The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, p. 202, 2000
I am half agony, half hope.The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 1950–1963
It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write.Letters Home: Correspondence, 1950-1963
The oldest, shortest words— "yes" and "no"— are those which require the most thought.The Bell Jar, 1963
If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.The Bell Jar, Chapter 5, 1963
That’s all 17 quotes by Sylvia Plath.