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A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.

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
Jokes
Serious
Learned
Truth
Jujitsu
Crafts
Poem
Joke

More quotes by 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.
William Stafford
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The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.
William Stafford
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Literature is not a picture of life, but is a separate experience with its own kind of flow and enhancement.
William Stafford
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Wisdom is having things right in your life and knowing why.
William Stafford
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What you have to do as a writer is . . . write day in and day out no matter what happens.
William Stafford
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You can lie at a banquet but you have to be honest in the kitchen.
William Stafford
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Can injustice one way be corrected without the interim reaction that tries to impose injustice the other way?
William Stafford
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There are so many things admirable people do not understand.
William Stafford
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They miss the whisper that runs any day in your mind, Who are you really, wanderer?-- and the answer you have to give no matter how dark and cold the world around you is: Maybe I'm a king.
William Stafford
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You were aimed from birth: you will never be alone... The whole wide world pours down.
William Stafford
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Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music.
William Stafford
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Once you decide to do right, life is easy, there are no distractions.
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.
William Stafford
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You shouldn't have standards that inhibit you from writing It really doesn't make any difference if you are good or bad today. The assessment of the product is something that happens after you've done it.
William Stafford
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When the snake decided to go straight, he didn't get anywhere.
William Stafford
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If you purify the pond, the lilies die
William Stafford
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I'll be Pavlov, you be the dog.
William Stafford
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You don't need many words if you already know what you're talking about
William Stafford
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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.
William Stafford