Security of character would be like a compass, you know? Other people may say that this way is north, or this way… — William Stafford Character Copy Share Image
“I would exchange all that I have written for the next thing.” — William Stafford Writing Copy Share Image
Wisdom is having things right in your life and knowing why. — William Stafford Growth Copy Share Image
“Assurance" You will never be alone, you hear so deep a sound when autumn comes. Yellow pulls across the hills and thrums,… — William Stafford Assurance Copy Share Image
I embrace emerging experience, I participate in discovery. I am a butterfly. I am not a butterfly collector. I want the experience… — William Stafford Butterfly Copy Share Image
The root and the flower have to trust each other. If the root does not trust, the plant won't blossom. — William Stafford Doe Copy Share Image
I have this feeling of wending my way or plundering through a mysterious jungle of possibilities when I am writing. This jungle… — William Stafford Developing Copy Share Image
Let the bucket of memory down into the well, bring it up. Cool, cool minutes. No one stirring, no plans. Just being… — William Stafford Being there Copy Share Image
Once we have tasted far streams, touched the gold, found some limit beyond the waterfall, a season changes and we come back… — William Stafford Changed Copy Share Image
You can treat experience as a set of surprises on which to exercise your quirky self. — William Stafford Exercise Copy Share Image
I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing. The real question is, why did other people stop? — William Stafford People Copy Share Image
Ask Me Some time when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made. Ask me whether what I have done… — William Stafford Ask me Copy Share Image
Everyone is born a poet - a person discovering the way words sound and work, caring and delighting in words. I just… — William Stafford Born Copy Share Image
A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu. — William Stafford Crafts Copy Share Image
When you allow me to live with you, every glance at the world around you will be a sort of salvation. — William Stafford Glances Copy Share Image
What you have to do as a writer is . . . write day in and day out no matter what happens. — William Stafford Happens Copy Share Image
And the things you know before you hear them; these are you and the reason you are in the world. — William Stafford Inspirational Copy Share Image
The signals we give-yes or no, or maybe-/should be clear/the darkness around us is deep. — William Stafford Clear Copy Share Image
One way to find your place is like the rain, a million requests for lodging, one that wins, finds your cheek: you… — William Stafford Cheeks Copy Share Image
A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has found a process that… — William Stafford Found Copy Share Image
It is this impulse to change the quality of experience that I recognize as central to creation. . . . Out of… — William Stafford Creation Copy Share Image
