Mary Oliver

“When the thumb of fear lifts, we are so alive.”

— Mary Oliver

The sea isn't a place but a fact, and a mystery ...

— Mary Oliver

A poet's interest in craft never fades, of course.

— Mary Oliver

“to leap into it and hold on, connecting everything,”

— Mary Oliver

As long as you're dancing, you can break the rules.

— Mary Oliver

I like books that are fat and full.

— Mary Oliver

Maybe the world, without us, is the real poem.

— Mary Oliver

And I say to my heart: rave on.

— Mary Oliver

I held my breath as we do sometimes to stop time when something wonderful has touched us...

— Mary Oliver

Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift.

— Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began…

— Mary Oliver

I want to be braver and more honest about my life. When you're sexually abused, there's a lot of damage.

— Mary Oliver

“Listen, whatever you see and love— that’s where you are.”

— Mary Oliver

The challenge is to keep up with all the new poets at the same time I love the old ones.

— Mary Oliver

Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, Stay awhile.

— Mary Oliver

You never know / What opportunity / Is going to travel to you, / Or through you.

— Mary Oliver

I worked privately, and sometimes I feel that might be better for poets than the kind of social workshop gathering. My school…

— Mary Oliver

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

— Mary Oliver

I don't know lots of things but I know this: next year when spring flows over the starting point I'll think I'm…

— Mary Oliver

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

— Mary Oliver

“In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and the ability to ask questions. Which are, at the…

— Mary Oliver

“When death comes…. I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what it’s going to be like, that cottage…

— Mary Oliver

Of course! The path to heaven doesn't lie down in flat miles. It's in the imagination with which you perceive this world,…

— Mary Oliver

“We meet wonderful people, but lose them in our busyness. We’re, as the saying goes, all over the place. Steadfastness, it seems,…

— Mary Oliver

Along with the differences that abide in each of us, there is also in each of us a maverick, the darling stubborn…

— Mary Oliver

I do not live happily or comfortably With the cleverness of our times. The talk is all about computers, The news is…

— Mary Oliver

At Blackwater Pond the tossed waters have settled after a night of rain. I dip my cupped hands. I drink a long…

— Mary Oliver

“It's very important to write things down instantly, or you can lose the way you were thinking out a line. I have…

— Mary Oliver

We all have a hungry heart, and one of the things we hunger for is happiness. So as much as I possibly…

— Mary Oliver

“Lo, and I have discovered how soft bloom turns to green fruit, which turns to sweet fruit. Lo, and I have discovered…

— Mary Oliver

...Sometimes I dream that everything in the world is here, in my room, in a great closet, named and orderly, and I…

— Mary Oliver

I stood willingly and gladly in the characters of everything - other people, trees, clouds. And this is what I learned, that…

— Mary Oliver

“The Fourth Sign of The Zodiac (Part 3) by Mary Oliver I know, you never intended to be in this world. But…

— Mary Oliver

“oxygen Everything needs it: bone, muscles, and even, while it calls the earth its home, the soul. So the merciful, noisy machine…

— Mary Oliver

“Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light, are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment,…

— Mary Oliver

“No, I mean really listen. Here's a story, and you don't have to visit many houses to find it. One person is…

— Mary Oliver

“Crossing the Swamp" Here is the endless wet thick cosmos, the center of everything—the nugget of dense sap, branching vines, the dark…

— Mary Oliver

“Landscape Isn't it plain the sheets of moss, except that they have no tongues, could lecture all day if they wanted about…

— Mary Oliver

“That Little Beast That pretty little beast, a poem, has a mind of its own. Sometimes I want it to crave apples…

— Mary Oliver

“Percy and Books Percy does not like it when I read a book. He puts his face over the top of it,…

— Mary Oliver