Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
I don't see writing as a communication of something already discovered, as truths already known. Rather, I see writing as a job of experiment. It's like any discovery job you don't know what's going to happen until you try it.
William Stafford
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
William Stafford
Age: 79 †
Born: 1914
Born: January 17
Died: 1993
Died: August 28
Author
Poet
Writer
Hutchinson
Kansas
Going
Already
Something
Happen
Like
Known
Experiment
Rather
Truths
Jobs
Experiments
Happens
Discovered
Writing
Discovery
Trying
Communication
More quotes by 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
It is as if the ordinary language we use every day has a hidden set of signals, a kind of secret code.
William Stafford
All still when summer is over stand shocks in the field, nothing left to whisper, not even good-bye, to the wind. After summer was over we knew winter would come: we knew silence would wait, tall, patient calm.
William Stafford
Others may be able to accept standards from another, but an artist is a person who decides.
William Stafford
You can lie at a banquet but you have to be honest in the kitchen.
William Stafford
When you allow me to live with you, every glance at the world around you will be a sort of salvation.
William Stafford
If you purify the pond, the lilies die
William Stafford
People wander about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread.
William Stafford
What you have to do as a writer is . . . write day in and day out no matter what happens.
William Stafford
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.
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
Keep a journal, and don't assume that your work has to accomplish anything worthy: artists and peace-workers are in it for the long haul, and not to be judged by immediate results.
William Stafford
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
And the things you know before you hear them these are you and the reason you are in the world.
William Stafford
When the snake decided to go straight, he didn't get anywhere.
William Stafford
Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music.
William Stafford
Language can do what it can’t say.
William Stafford
There is no such thing as writer's block for writers whose standards are low enough.
William Stafford
The signals we give-yes or no, or maybe-/should be clear/the darkness around us is deep.
William Stafford
The ocean and I have many pebbles To find and wash off and roll into shape.
William Stafford