Robert Meary Quotes in Pumpkin (2002)

Robert Meary: I can't teach people to write poetry. It has to come from your experience... from your insides. Listen babe, I could show you great poems which you will begin by imitating. If you have some talent, you might write a decent poem by the end of the semester.

Cici Pinkus: What do you do if everything inside you is ugly?

Robert Meary: Your life may be ugly, kid, but a successful poem about it will not be ugly because the poem will illuminate and communicate the horror of your life to other people.

Carolyn McDuffy: What do you mean, the horror of our lives? Why should anything be horrible or ugly? Why can't everything be beautiful and perfect?

Carolyn McDuffy: People are mean. They're brutal, they're unhappy, they're jealous.

Robert Meary: Good. Good, good. You've made some progress. Now what on earth made this happen?

Carolyn McDuffy: [horrified look] Something I left on the beach.