Mary Oliver Quotes

“The language of the poem is the language of particulars.”

“I don't ask for the sights in front of me to change, only the depth of my seeing.”

“You may not agree, you may not care, but if you are holding this book you should know that of all the sights I love in this world — and there are plenty — very near the top of the list is this one: dogs without leashes.”

“My work is loving the world.”

“A fact: one picks it up and reads it, and puts it down, and there is an end to it. But an idea! That one may pick up, and reflect upon, and oppose, and expand, and so pass a delightful afternoon altogether.”

“I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time when something wonderful has touched us.”

“Listen--are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?”

“We do not love anything more deeply than we love a story.”

“...whoever you are, not matter how lonely the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh & exciting - over & over announcing your place in the family of things.”

“A poet's interest in craft never fades, of course.”

“I GO DOWN TO THE SHORE I go down to the shore in the morning and depending on the hour the waves are rolling in or moving out, and I say, oh, I am miserable, what shall— what should I do? And the sea says in its lovely voice: Excuse me, I have work to do.”

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

“I believe in kindness. Also in mischief.”

“Writers sometimes give up what is most strange and wonderful about their writing - soften their roughest edges - to accommodate themselves toward a group response.”

“What I have done is learn to love and learn to be loved. That didn't come easy.”

“It is better for the heart to break, than not to break.”

“We can know a lot. And still, no doubt, there are rash and wonderful ideas brewing somewhere; there are many surprises yet to come.”

“Look, I want to love this worldas though it's the last chance I'm ever going to getto be aliveand know it.”

“I always feel that whatever isn't necessary shouldn't be in a poem.”

“Sometimes I spend all day trying to count the leaves on a single tree... Of course I have to give up, but by then I'm half crazy with the wonder of it--the abundance of the leaves, the quietness of the branches, the hopelessness of my effort. And I am in that delicious and important place, roaring with laughter, full of earth-praise.”

“Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads. (from “Mysteries, Yes”)”

“Attention is the beginning of devotion.”

“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.”

“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.”

“Invention hovers always a little above the rules.”