Wasn't it Emerson who said, 'My life is for itself and not for a spectacle'? I have a happy, full, good life because I hold it private. Mary Oliver emersonfullgood Change image and share on social
Animals praise a good day, a good hunt. They praise rain if they're thirsty. That's prayer. They don't live an unconscious life, they simply have no language to talk about these things. But they are grateful for the good things that come along. Mary Oliver animaldaygood share on social
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. Mary Oliver begindutyfeeling Change image and share on social
Instead of taking the reader by the hand and running him down the hill, I want to lead him into a house of many rooms, and leave him alone in each of them. Mary Oliver handhillhouse Change image and share on social
I've always wanted to write poems and nothing else. Mary Oliver havepoemwant Change image and share on social
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. Mary Oliver experiencerpoemreader Change image and share on social
I would rather write poems than prose, any day, any place. Yet each has its own force. Mary Oliver dayforceplace Change image and share on social
To find a new word that is accurate and different, you have to be alert for it. Mary Oliver accuratealertfind Change image and share on social
At the time I was growing up, literature was involved with the so-called confessional poets. And I was not interested in that. I did not think that specific and personal perspective functioned well for the reader at all. Mary Oliver callconfessionalfunction share on social
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. Mary Oliver childdutyearnestly Change image and share on social
