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Even the upper end of the river believes in the ocean.

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
Sea
Ocean
Ends
Even
Upper
Believe
Believes
River
Beach
Rivers

More quotes by William Stafford

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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.
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If you purify the pond, the lilies die
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Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music.
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Security of character would be like a compass, you know? Other people may say that this way is north, or this way might be north. But the compass just says -- north. That's what we count on.
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When the snake decided to go straight, he didn't get anywhere.
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One way to find your place is like the rain, a million requests for lodging, one that wins, finds your cheek: you find your home.
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If you can say it, it begins to exist.
William Stafford
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I embrace emerging experience, I participate in discovery. I am a butterfly. I am not a butterfly collector. I want the experience of the butterfly.
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The ocean and I have many pebbles To find and wash off and roll into shape.
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?
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Others may be able to accept standards from another, but an artist is a person who decides.
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Anyone who breathes is in the rhythm business.
William Stafford
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People wander about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread.
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My question is when did other people give up the idea of being a poet? You know, when we are kids we make up things, we write, and for me the puzzle is not that some people are still writing, the real question is why did the other people stop?
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Can injustice one way be corrected without the interim reaction that tries to impose injustice the other way?
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Once you decide to do right, life is easy, there are no distractions.
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.
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Everyone is born a poet - a person discovering the way words sound and work, caring and delighting in words. I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing. The real question is: Why did other people stop?
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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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You can lie at a banquet but you have to be honest in the kitchen.
William Stafford