Mary Oliver quotes - page 5

In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be. (Mary Oliver)
Therefore, dark past, I'm about to do it. I'm about to forgive you for everything. View quote
Mary Oliver
As a child, what captivated me was reading the poems myself and realizing that there was a world without material substance which was nevertheless as alive as any other. View quote
Mary Oliver
Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that. View quote
Mary Oliver
I simply do not distinguish between work and play. View quote
Mary Oliver
To find a new word that is accurate and different, you have to be alert for it. View quote
Mary Oliver
I went to India and was quite taken with it. There's a feeling there that things are holy first and useful second. View quote
Mary Oliver
In college, you learn how to learn. Four years is not too much time to spend at that. View quote
Mary Oliver
Writers sometimes give up what is most strange and wonderful about their writing - soften their roughest edges - to accommodate themselves toward a group response. View quote
Mary Oliver
Walks work for me. I enter some arena that is neither conscious or unconscious. View quote
Mary Oliver
I consider myself kind of a reporter - one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself as a poet; I just get up and write. (Mary Oliver)
I was very careful never to take an interesting job. If you have an interesting job, you get interested in it. View quote
Mary Oliver
I very much wished not to be noticed, and to be left alone, and I sort of succeeded. View quote
Mary Oliver
Almost anything is too much. I am trying in my poems to have the reader be the experiencer. I do not want to be there. It is not even a walk we take together. View quote
Mary Oliver
I have a notebook with me all the time, and I begin scribbling a few words. When things are going well, the walk does not get anywhere; I finally just stop and write. View quote
Mary Oliver
I decided very early that I wanted to write. But I didn't think of it as a career. I didn't even think of it as a profession... It was the most exciting thing, the most powerful thing, the most wonderful thing to do with my life. View quote
Mary Oliver
People want poetry. They need poetry. They get it. They don't want fancy work. View quote
Mary Oliver
If I've done my work well, I vanish completely from the scene. I believe it is invasive of the work when you know too much about the writer. View quote
Mary Oliver
One thing I do know is that poetry, to be understood, must be clear. View quote
Mary Oliver
I have a notion that if you are going to be spiritually curious, you better not get cluttered up with too many material things. View quote
Mary Oliver
I worked probably 25 years by myself, just writing and working, not trying to publish much, not giving readings. (Mary Oliver)
You have to be in the world to understand what the spiritual is about, and you have to be spiritual in order to truly be able to accept what the world is about. View quote
Mary Oliver
The challenge is to keep up with all the new poets at the same time I love the old ones. View quote
Mary Oliver
I worked privately, and sometimes I feel that might be better for poets than the kind of social workshop gathering. My school was the great poets: I read, and I read, and I read. View quote
Mary Oliver
I think one thing is that prayer has become more useful, interesting, fruitful, and... almost involuntary in my life. View quote
Mary Oliver