quotes from classic

Walks work for me. I enter some arena that is neither conscious or unconscious.

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As a child, what captivated me was reading the poems myself and realizing that there was a world without material substance which was nevertheless as alive as any other.

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

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

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My first two books are out of print and, okay, they can sleep there comfortably. It's early work, derivative work.

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One thing I do know is that poetry, to be understood, must be clear.

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It's very important to write things down instantly, or you can lose the way you were thinking out a line. I have a rule that if I wake up at 3 in the morning and think of something, I write it down.

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If I've done my work well, I vanish completely from the scene. I believe it is invasive of the work when you know too much about the writer.

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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.

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I very much wished not to be noticed, and to be left alone, and I sort of succeeded.

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I decided very early that I wanted to write. But I didn't think of it as a career. I didn't even think of it as a profession... It was the most exciting thing, the most powerful thing, the most wonderful thing to do with my life.

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We all have a hungry heart, and one of the things we hunger for is happiness. So as much as I possibly could, I stayed where I was happy. I spent a great deal of time in my younger years just writing and reading, walking around the woods in Ohio, where I grew up.

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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.

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Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

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In college, you learn how to learn. Four years is not too much time to spend at that.

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To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.

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I was very careful never to take an interesting job. If you have an interesting job, you get interested in it.

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People want poetry. They need poetry. They get it. They don't want fancy work.

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So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray.

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

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