Time & Perspective Quote by Sharon Olds

Olds turns a bland modern excuse - I dont have time - into a statement with teeth. The line sounds almost comically redundant, but thats the point: repetition becomes enforcement. In a culture that treats busyness as both alibi and status symbol, she refuses the wink. No polite softening, no performative regret. Time here is not a vibe; its a hard limit, a boundary with consequences.

The specificity of "quit all these things" matters. Its not one dramatic renunciation but a pile of ordinary obligations, favors, committees, social maintenance - the kind of invisible labor that accumulates until your own work, body, and attention become the leftover. Olds is a poet whose subject matter often circles intimacy, motherhood, and the pressure points of domestic life. Read in that context, the sentence carries a gendered charge: women are trained to translate exhaustion into something more palatable ("Im just so busy"), and to keep the door cracked open for more requests. Olds shuts it.

The subtext is almost defiant: believing women when they say no. The line also sketches an artists ethic. Writing requires not only talent but the ruthless protection of unproductive-looking hours. By insisting that "no time" is literal, Olds rejects the fantasy that there is always a hidden reserve you can tap if you just try harder. The power of the quote is its unromantic clarity: boundaries are not explanations; they are decisions.