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The earth says have a place, be what that place requires hear the sound the birds imply and see as deep as ridges go behind each other.
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
Hear
Imply
Sound
Birds
Place
Requires
Earth
Bird
Behinds
Deep
Behind
Says
Ridges
More quotes by William Stafford
When the snake decided to go straight, he didn't get anywhere.
William Stafford
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?
William Stafford
Once you decide to do right, life is easy, there are no distractions.
William Stafford
It is this impulse to change the quality of experience that I recognize as central to creation. . . . Out of all that could be done, you choose one thing. What that one thing is, nothing else can tell you--you come at it over unmarked snow.
William Stafford
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
'Be alive,' the land says, 'listen - this is your time, your world, your pleasure.'
William Stafford
Wisdom is having things right in your life and knowing why.
William Stafford
If you don't know the kind of person I am and I don't know the kind of person you are a pattern that others made may prevail in the world and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
William Stafford
The things you do not have to say make you rich. Saying things you do not have to say weakens your talk. Hearing things you do not need to hear dulls your hearing. And things you know before you hear them — those are you, those are why you are in the world.
William Stafford
A writer is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things.
William Stafford
Let the bucket of memory down into the well, bring it up. Cool, cool minutes. No one stirring, no plans. Just being there.
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Anyone who breathes is in the rhythm business.
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There is no such thing as writer's block for writers whose standards are low enough.
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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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You can lie at a banquet but you have to be honest in the kitchen.
William Stafford
The signals we give-yes or no, or maybe-/should be clear/the darkness around us is deep.
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...What you fear will not go away it will take you into yourself and bless you and keep you. That's the world, and we all live there.
William Stafford
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.
William Stafford
The ocean and I have many pebbles To find and wash off and roll into shape.
William Stafford
You can treat experience as a set of surprises on which to exercise your quirky self.
William Stafford