The writer, unlike his non-writing adult friend, has no predisposed outlook; he seldom observes deliberately. He sees what he did ...not intend to see; he remembers what does not seem wholly possible. Inattentive learner in the schoolroom of life, he keeps some faculty free to veer and wander. His is the roving eye.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is a great advantage for any man to be able to talk or hear, neither ignorantly nor absurdly, upon any subject; for I have know...n people, who have not said one word, hear ignorantly and absurdly; it has appeared by their inattentive and unmeaning faces.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In Manhattan, every flat surface is a potential stage and every inattentive waiter an unemployed, possibly unemployable, actor.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The bad lover, like the bad poet, perhaps because of a preoccupation with self, is essentially inattentive, doesn't listen, doesn'...t anticipate. Or, just as bad, proceeds by rote, first this thing and then the next, and therefore leaves no opportunity for discovery, or departure. Form to me implies an alertness to the demands of your material and an orchestration of effects. It is some happy combination of the poet's intent and the poem's esprit and the necessary compromises between the two. We can't be too willful, but we must have things in mind. We don't want to be the wimps of our own poems, but we'd be happy to be led into some lovely places. And we'd like to have some control after we lose control, at least enough to throw light on what has just hap pened, perhaps even to articulate what it has meant to us. And of course there are moments when we'd be better off being appreciatively silent.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I go out of my way, but rather by license than carelessness.... It is the inattentive reader who loses my subject, not I. Som...e word about it will always be found off in a corner, which will not fail to be sufficient, though it takes little room.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Now all day long the man who is not dead Hastens the dark with inattentive eyes,... The woman with white hand and erect head Stares at the covers, leans for the son's replies At last to her importunate womanhood....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »