What are flies?

Famous quotes containing the word flies:

“The primacy of the word, basis of the human psyche, that has in our age been used for mind-bending persuasion and brain-washing pulp, disgraced by Goebbels and debased by advertising copy, remains a force for freedom that flies out between all bars.”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)

“but what can be done gull gull when you turn the sun
on again, a dead fruit
and all that flies today
is crooked and vain and has been cut from a book.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)

“The wild beasts, sparrows pecking the llamas’ grain,
Pigeons settling on the bears’ bread, buzzards
Tearing the meat the flies have clouded. . . .”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)