Richard Brautigan

Richard Gary Brautigan (January 30, 1935 – September 1984) was an American novelist and poet associated with the Beat Generation.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

Quotes

The Pill Versus the Springhill Mining Disaster

Dell Publishing (Delta), 1968 (Some poems in this edition first appeared elsewhere.)

• A friend came over to the house
  a few days ago and read one of my poems.
  He came back today and asked to read the
  same poem over again. After he finished
  reading it, he said, "It makes me want to write poetry."
  • "Hey! This Is What It's All About"

• I like to think
  (it has to be!)
  of a cybernetic ecology
  where we are free of our labors
  and joined back to nature,
  returned to our mammal
  brothers and sisters,
  and all watched over
  by machines of loving grace.
  • "All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace"

• if a girl likes me a lot
  and starts getting real nervous
  and suddenly begins asking me funny questions
  and looks sad if I give the wrong answers
  and she says things like,
  "Do you think it's going to rain?"
  and I say, "It beats me,"
  and she says, "Oh,"
  and looks a little sad
  at the clear blue California sky,
  I think: Thank God, it's you, baby, this time
    Instead of me.
  • "It's Raining In Love"

Rommel Drives on deep into Egypt

Dell Publishing (Delta), 1970 (Some poems in this edition first appeared elsewhere.)

• Forsaken, fucking in the cold,
  eating each other, lost
  runny noses,
  complaining all the time
  like so many
  people
  that we know
  
  • "Donner Party"

• Thinking hard about you
  I got on the bus
  and paid 30 cents car fare
  and asked the driver for two transfers
  before discovering
  that I was
  alone.
  • "30 cents, Two Transfers, Love"

• Everybody wants to go to bed
  with everybody else, they're
  lined up for blocks, so I'll
  go to bed with you. They won't
  miss us.
  • "-2"

Trout Fishing In America

Dell Publishing (Delta), 1967 (Some chapters of this novel first appeared elsewhere.)

• There are seductions that should be in the Smithsonian Institute, right next to The Spirit of St. Louis.
  • Epigram at the end of the table of contents. (Underlining in source.)

• Everything smelled of sheep. The dandelions were suddenly more sheep than flower, each petal reflecting wool and the sound of a bell ringing off the yellow. But the thing that smelled the most like sheep, was the sun itself. When the sun went behind a cloud, the smell of sheep decreased, like standing on some old guy's hearing aid, and when the sun came back again, the smell of the sheep was loud, like a clap of thunder inside a cup of coffee.
  • Page 50

• ... the Coleman lantern is the symbol of the camping craze that is currently sweeping America, with its unholy white light burning in the forests of America.
  • Page 73.

The Tokyo-Montana Express

Delacorte, 1980

• All of us have a place in history. Mine is clouds.
  • Page 150

So the Wind Won't Blow It All Away

Delacorte, 1982

• I didn't know the full dimensions of forever, but I knew it was longer than waiting for Christmas to come.
  • Page 38

An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey

St. Martins Press, 2000

• Probably the closest things to perfection are the huge absolutely empty holes that astronomers have recently discovered in space. If there's nothing there, how can anything go wrong?
  • Page 15

External links

• More poems by Brautigan