Mary Oliver Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“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.”

“I love the line of Flaubert about observing things very intensely. I think our duty as writers begins not with our own feelings, but with the powers of observing.”

“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.”

“I think one thing is that prayer has become more useful, interesting, fruitful, and... almost involuntary in my life.”

“In college, you learn how to learn. Four years is not too much time to spend at that.”

“I worked probably 25 years by myself, just writing and working, not trying to publish much, not giving readings.”

“There is nothing better than work. Work is also play; children know that. Children play earnestly as if it were work. But people grow up, and they work with a sorrow upon them. It's duty.”

“To find a new word that is accurate and different, you have to be alert for it.”

“Walks work for me. I enter some arena that is neither conscious or unconscious.”

“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.”