653 Quotes by Mary Oliver

I read the way a person might swim, to save his or her life. I wrote that way too.

Though I play at the edges of knowing, truly I know our part is not knowing, but looking, and touching, and loving

Sometimes I dreamthat everything in the world is here, in my room, in a great closet, named and orderly,and I am here too, in front of it, hardly able to see for the flash and the brightness—and sometimes I am that madcap person clapping my hands and singing; and sometimes I am that quiet person down on my knees.

Imagination is better than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.

So come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbor of your longing,and put your lips to the world.And live your life.

And now you'll be telling storiesof my coming backand they won't be false, and they won't be truebut they'll be real

My responsibility is not to the ordinary, or the timely. It does not include mustard, or teeth. It does not extend to the lost button, or the beans in the pot. My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever and howsoever it may arrive.

And then I feel the sun itselfas it blazes over the hills,like a million flowers on fire --clearly I'm not needed,yet I feel myself turninginto something of inexplicable value.-from The Buddha's Last Instruction

I wanted the past to go away, I wantedto leave it, like another country; I wantedmy life to close, and openlike a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the songwhere it fallsdown over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;I wantedto hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know,whoever I was, I wasalivefor a little while.