Top 62 Quotes by Mary Oliver

Writers must... take care of the sensibility that houses the possibility of poems.

Apparently, I've been considered a recluse.

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.

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

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

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

I would rather write poems than prose, any day, any place. Yet each has its own force.

I like books that are fat and full.

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

I went to India and was quite taken with it. There's a feeling there that things are holy first and useful second.