Mary Oliver

There is nothing better than work. Work is also play; children know that. Children play earnestly as if it were work. But people grow up, and they work with a sorrow upon them. It's duty.

Walks work for me. I enter some arena that is neither conscious or unconscious.

If I've done my work well, I vanish completely from the scene. I believe it is invasive of the work when you know too much about the writer.

My first two books are out of print and, okay, they can sleep there comfortably. It's early work, derivative work.

To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.

I simply do not distinguish between work and play.