Language can do what it can’t say. William Stafford More Quotes by William Stafford More Quotes From William Stafford I am not learning definitions as established in even the latest dictionaries. I am not a dictionary-maker. I am a person a dictionary-maker has to contend with. I am a living evidence in the development of language. William Stafford definitionsdevelopmentlanguage I have this feeling of wending my way or plundering through a mysterious jungle of possibilities when I am writing. This jungle has not been explored by previous writers. It never will be explored. It's endlessly varying as we progress through the experience of time. These words that occur to me come out of my relation to the language which is developing even as I am using it. William Stafford progressfeelingswriting When the snake decided to go straight, he didn't get anywhere. William Stafford decidedsnakesjourney The signals we give-yes or no, or maybe-/should be clear/the darkness around us is deep. William Stafford shoulddarknessgiving You were aimed from birth: you will never be alone... The whole wide world pours down. William Stafford birthpurposeworld Some people are blinded by their experience. Soldiers know how important war is. Owners of slaves learn every day how inferior subject peoples are. William Stafford soldierwarpeople I'll be Pavlov, you be the dog. William Stafford pavlovdog Others may be able to accept standards from another, but an artist is a person who decides. William Stafford ableartistmay I don't see writing as a communication of something already discovered, as "truths" already known. Rather, I see writing as a job of experiment. It's like any discovery job; you don't know what's going to happen until you try it. William Stafford communicationwritingjobs I'll be me, but I don't like it. William Stafford likeme
