“Like the knights of the Middle Ages, there is little the creatively inclined person can do but to prepare himself, body and spirit, for the labor to come — for his adventures are all unknown. In truth, the work itself is the adventure. And no artist could go about this work, or would want to, with less than extraordinary energy and concentration. The extraordinary is what art is about.”
More from Mary Oliver
“Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers.”
“Maybe the desire to make something beautiful is the piece of God that is inside each of…”
“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls…”
“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles…”