151 Quotes by William Stafford

A student comes to me with a piece of writing, holds it out, says, 'Is this good?' A whole sequence of emergencies goes off in my mind. That's not a question to ask anyone but yourself.

Writing itself is one of the great, free human activities. There is scope for individuality, and elation, and discovery. In writing, for the person who follows with trust and forgiveness what occurs to him, the world remains always ready and deep, an inexhaustible environment, with the combined vividness of an actuality and flexibility of a dream. Working back and forth between experience and thought, writers have more than space and time can offer. They have the whole unexplored realm of human vision.

Silence on a hill where the path endedand then the forest belowmoving in one long whisperas evening touched the leaves.

Silence on a hill where the path ended and then the forest below moving in one long whisper as evening touched the leaves.

It's love,' they say. You touch the right one and a whole half of the universe wakes up, a new half.

Shelter in winter that day --a storm coming, but in the leeof an island in a cover with friends --oh, little bright cup of sun.

I keep following this sort of hidden river of my life, you know, whatever the topic or impulse which comes, I follow it along trustingly. And I don't have any sense of its coming to a kind of crescendo, or of its petering out either. It is just going steadily along.

One way to find your place is likethe rain, a million requestsfor lodging, one that wins, findsyour cheek: you find your home.

Once we have tasted far streams, touched the gold, found some limit beyond the waterfall, a season changes and we come back changed but safe, quiet, grateful.