Marguerite Young Quotes

'Mormonism' has made me all I am; and the grace, the power, and the wisdom of God will make me all that I ever will be, either in time or in eternity.

The Mormons are very smart people. I know many Mormons.

Look, [Mitt] Romney comes from a religion founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro-slavery, and a rapist. And he comes from that lineage and says, 'I respect this religion fully.'

I would vote for a Mormon.

Mormonism is not historic Christianity. When people say, 'Well, Mormons and Christians all believe the same things,' my response is, 'If that's true, why are they always on my front doorstep trying to convert me?'

Most Christians would not recognize Mormonism as part of the Christian faith.

When the 'Book of Mormon' was first published, some of those who believed in it taught it to others and testified of it.

Well, my father's people were Mormon, and had immigrated not long after Brigham Young had settled Utah.

I carry Yeats with me wherever I go. He's my constant companion. I always can find some comfort in Yeats no matter what the situation is. Months and months and months go by and I know I need to switch to Shelley or somebody else, but right now Yeats is enough for me.

I always turn to Frank O'Hara and David Berman's 'Actual Air,' which came out in 1999. He's a poet I haven't tired of.

It is almost impossible to write fiction about the Mormons, for the reason that Mormon institutions and Mormon society are so peculiar that they call for constant explanation.

I find Mormons adorable. I love Disneyland and old musicals, and, to me, Mormonism fits right in with all of that.

You can't be too influenced by a great poet. You simply have to live through it.

The Prophet Joseph Smith lived in troubled times.

Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord has established His Church once again among men.

Deseret—Mormon name for Utah And they did also carry with them Deseret, which, by interpretation, is a honeybee; and thus they did carry with them swarms of bees, and all manner of that which was upon the face of the land, seeds of every kind.

I don't think I met an actual Mormon until college, and by that time, I was wary of them. I knew about the church through school and, secondhand, through non-Mormon friends.

Yes, I do write poetry. It's very therapeutic. I'm influenced by Pablo Neruda and Gulzar Saab. It's all very personal.

When I was a teenager I fell in love with TS Eliot.

Find a poet whose style you like, emulate that style, then deal with things that you know about - don't waste your time looking for your own style.' I wish I could remember who told me that, because I'd like to congraulate him. I've emulated all the old guys - Tennyson, Alexander Pope.

When I started writing poetry, it was always in very hip-hop influenced spaces: Someone would teach a Nas song side-by-side with a Gwendolyn Brooks poem, and we'd talk about the connections between those things.

I think of the Tamil poet Subrahmanya Bharati every day, and he is an inspiration in my musical creations.

It's a common notion that if you like Tagore, then he must have had an influence on your life. While I like Tagore's poetry and his thoughts, he doesn't influence my work.

Mormonism is obsessed with Christ, and everything that it teaches is meant to awaken, encourage, and expand faith in him. […] I came to this conclusion when I read through the Book of Mormon for the first time. […] When I actually read this book … I was utterly surprised. I was not moved, mind you. The Book of Mormon has to be one of the most lackluster of all the great works of literature that have inspired enduring religious movements. Yet it is dull precisely because it is all about Jesus. There are many characters in this book, but they change as little as the plot. Nobody stands out but him. “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Nephi 25:26). And not just Jesus: A whole gospel in all of its theological details—right down to debates about baptism, the relationship of law to grace, and the problem of divine foreknowledge—is taught to the people of the New World centuries before Jesus was even born.

In a way, being a Mormon prepares you to deal with science fiction, because we live simultaneously in two very different cultures. The result is that we all know what it's like to be strangers in a strange land. It's not just a coincidence that there are so many effective Mormon science fiction writers. We don't regard being an alien as an alien experience. But it also means that we're not surprised when people don't understand what we're saying or what we think.