It's very important to write things down instantly, or you can lose the way you were thinking out a line. I have a rule that if I wake up at 3 in the morning and think of something, I write it down. -Mary Oliver Morning
Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and it began as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth. -Mary Oliver Poetry
When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. -Mary Oliver Amazing
We all have a hungry heart, and one of the things we hunger for is happiness. So as much as I possibly could, I stayed where I was happy. -Mary Oliver Happiness
Animals praise a good day, a good hunt. They praise rain if they're thirsty. That's prayer. They don't live an unconscious life, they simply have no language to talk about these things. But they are grateful for the good things that come along. -Mary Oliver Good
To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go. -Mary Oliver Time
Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that. -Mary Oliver Poetry
We all have a hungry heart, and one of the things we hunger for is happiness. So as much as I possibly could, I stayed where I was happy. I spent a great deal of time in my younger years just writing and reading, walking around the woods in Ohio, where I grew up. -Mary Oliver Happiness
