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A speech is something you say so as to distract attention from what you do not say.

William Stafford

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William Stafford
Age: 79 †
Born: 1914
Born: January 17
Died: 1993
Died: August 28
Author
Poet
Writer
Hutchinson
Kansas
Distract
Speech
Attention
Something

More quotes by William Stafford

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People wander about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread.
William Stafford
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Will you ever bring a better gift for the world than the breathing respect that you carry wherever you go right now?
William Stafford
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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.
William Stafford
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And the things you know before you hear them these are you and the reason you are in the world.
William Stafford
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A writer is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things.
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When the snake decided to go straight, he didn't get anywhere.
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There are so many things admirable people do not understand.
William Stafford
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Let the bucket of memory down into the well, bring it up. Cool, cool minutes. No one stirring, no plans. Just being there.
William Stafford
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The signals we give-yes or no, or maybe-/should be clear/the darkness around us is deep.
William Stafford
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You can treat experience as a set of surprises on which to exercise your quirky self.
William Stafford
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A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.
William Stafford
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When you allow me to live with you, every glance at the world around you will be a sort of salvation.
William Stafford
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Wisdom is having things right in your life and knowing why.
William Stafford
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A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not started to say them.
William Stafford
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The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.
William Stafford
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Language can do what it can’t say.
William Stafford
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When a goat likes a book, the whole book is gone, and the meaning has to go find an author again.
William Stafford
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I heard a bird congratulating itself all day for being a jay. Nobody cared. But it was glad all over again, and said so, again.
William Stafford
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I have woven a parachute out of everything broken.
William Stafford
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The more you let yourself be distracted from where you are going, the more you are the person that you are. It's not so much like getting lost as it is like getting found.
William Stafford