Mary Oliver Quotes

My work is loving the world.

earth

I look upon time as no more than an idea.

time

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.

One of our great assistances is, of course, punctuation.  But it occurred to me that, perhaps, each of us writers has only perhaps a finite amount of it for our use, and we should use it judiciously—lest we hear a voice, suddenly, when we need it, saying, "No more semicolons!" "You're finished with your dashes!"  And, also, that passive-aggressive comma, with which we so carefully set off what is nice, so it won't be missed.

punctuation