David Whyte Quotes

And I was desolate and sick of an old passion.

Even as a child I had a strong relationship with yearning and desire. And loss. Those things spoke to me.

Men mourn for what they have lost; women for what they ain't got.

You never say and do the things you wish you had said or done when someone close to you may not be around in awhile. Closure is impossible; that's the heart of the grief you will carry with you for the rest of your life.

My dad had a lot of bad luck. You could see his suffering, his terrible suffering, living a life that was disappointing and looking for another one.

I think you always have regrets.

We might have been - these are but common words, and yet they make the sum of life's bewailing.

Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?

It's a source of great sadness to me that my father died without having seen me do anything worthwhile. He was constantly having to make excuses for me.

Middle age is when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you.

My head has got regrets, but I haven't.

There are many things that I feel I have missed out on.

So many times, I have a speech ready but no dice. Always a bridesmaid, never a mother.

In 1957's 'There's No You,' Sinatra is suspended at the intersection of a loss he can't face and a memory he can't relinquish.

No operatic star has yet died soon enough for me.

I'm incredibly sad that my mother's not here to see my kids and that my kids don't get to know her. And she didn't meet my husband. That's one of the hardest things. I don't even know how to put that into words.

So much of the deep lingering sadness over President Kennedy's assassination is about the unfinished promise: unspoken speeches, unfulfilled hopes, the wondering about what might have been.

The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be.

Nostalgia is always doomed and dooming.

I remember having crushes and longings, but there were all these missed opportunities or things that seemed like such a big deal, but you really don't understand what the other person is going through.

I followed a guy to Denmark. I came home with a broken heart.

For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'.

Some pass their days as though suffering a deep sadness they cannot name. Others are unhappy because life didn't turn out the way they thought it would.

Maybe it would have been better if neither of us had been born.

I'm very happy with my life and career, but I do find myself having serious attacks of nostalgia, and I don't quite know why. Even though I've got to travel the world and do amazing things, I still want to go back to my teenage years and change little aspects of it. It's strange, but it does continue to bug me.