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One of O, The Oprah Magazine’s Ten Best Books of the Year! The New York Times bestselling collection of essays from beloved poet, Mary Oliver. “In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly

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Mary Oliver (18)

“In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and the ability to ask questions. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and the fires that scorch us.”

— Mary Oliver, goodreads.com

“I could not be a poet without the natural world. Someone else could. But not me. For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple.”

— Mary Oliver, goodreads.com

“I learned from Whitman that the poem is a temple--or a green field--a place to enter, and in which to feel.”

— Mary Oliver, goodreads.com

Tagged: Writing, Spirituality

“In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.”

— Mary Oliver, goodreads.com

Tagged: Writing, Nature, Spirituality, Self-improvement, becoming better

“I don't know if I am heading toward heaven or that other, dark place, but I know I have already lived in heaven for fifty years. Thank you, Provincetown.”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Provincetown, Places, Home, Good writing

“Let me always be who I am, and then some.”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: How to be a writer, self, Quote of the Moment

“I could not be a poet without the natural world. Someone else could. But not me. For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple.”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Nature, Poetry, Writing, How to be a writer

“Knowledge has entertained me and it has shaped me and it has failed me. Something in me still starves.”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Knowledge, Philosophy, Curiosity, Good writing, Quote of the Moment

“He was, of course, a piece of the sky. His eyes said so. This is not a fact; this is the other part of knowing something, when there is no proof, but neither is there any way toward disbelief. Imagine lifting the lid from a jar and finding it filled not with darkness but with light. Bird was like th…”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Writing, Nature, Why we believe what we believe

“Over and over in the butterfly we see the idea of transcendence. In the forest we see not the inert but the aspiring. In water that departs forever and forever returns, we experience eternity.”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Writing, Nature

“In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and the ability to ask questions. Which are, at the same time, the fires that warm us and the fires that scorch us.”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Writing, How To Love, Love, Philosophy, Questions

“The working, concentrating artist is an adult who refuses interruption from himself, who remains absorbed and energized in and by the work -- who is thus responsible to the work.”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Writing, How to be a writer, The creative habit, Art

“And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Life, How to be good, A Good Life

“In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed.”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Good writing, Poetry, Women, teenagers

“It is six A.M., and I am working. I am absentminded, reckless, heedless of social obligations, etc. It is as it must be. The tire goes flat, the tooth falls out, there will be a hundred meals without mustard. The poem gets written. I have wrestled with the angel and I am stained with light and I hav…”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Creation, Writing, How to be a writer

“Of this there can be no question — creative work requires a loyalty as complete as the loyalty of water to the force of gravity. A person trudging through the wilderness of creation who does not know this — who does not swallow this — is lost. He who does not crave that roofless place eternity shoul…”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Creation, Writing, How to be a writer

“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 l…”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: creating, Writing, How to be a writer

“Creative work needs solitude. It needs concentration, without interruptions. It needs the whole sky to fly in.”

— Mary Oliver, amazon.com

Tagged: Writing, How to be a writer, Good writing, Creation