Hourglass Museum Quotes

“If you think you are the mermaid, think again.
You are the ocean holding the mermaid afloat,
trying to change the world one dolphin at a time.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“...look up and see the madness
organized in the stars.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“I don’t believe we should carry backup
plans in life’s suitcase—

they’re too easy to unpack
like living a life in yoga pants,
so comfortable our hips spread
into new timezones...”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“Sometimes darkness
is the beauty I am made of—”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“Maybe I’m still the mermaid.
Maybe the ocean is your hand.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“Yes, it hurts to fall—
ache, tenderness
—but each scar is a sign your system is working.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“Know there's beauty in the words you leave out”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“We must live with our hearts
in our hands - like Mary.

We must hold the blood-
red heart and no be disappointed
when others look away.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“the moon is just another kind of clock”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“To suffer together is to suffer
with beauty,”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“Like the kite that caught up to the sky,
painted with clouds, I lost track of it,
but it was connected

by string, something I was holding,
something I could always
bring back.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“Understand, it’s never been easy to live,
when we’re trying to escape ourselves.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“I escape disaster by writing a poem with a joke in it:
The past, present, and future walk into a bar—it was tense.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“She pours sugar on her life
and drinks the artist’s marrow
in the bone of her glass and she lives.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“I wonder if I might be lonelier
if I didn't have loneliness”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“and everyone wants to read the poem
we’re afraid to write.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“in the corner of the painting of success
the signature is blurred”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“For everyone who never smiled in school
photos, for all who’ve wandered city streets

not knowing the where they were
or feeling alone, I’ve packed kindness.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“A crowd of drunken lovers. Newspaper
hats, new couples falling from couches and love-
seats—the pleasure remembered,
never the regret.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“To suffer together is to suffer
with beauty...”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“As I go under, I wonder if there’s a reason for art?”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“I can’t relate to your razzle-dazzle, your wish
for voluptuous when my symphony is spanx.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“I place solitude in a frame on my desk and call it, the one I love.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“We must lice with our hearts
in our hands - like Mary.

We must hold the blood-
red heart and no be disappointed
when others look away.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“A friend comes over with a Ouija board.
It spells out: Bourbon. Where’s the band?

Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean you can’t
have fun.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum