For it is important that awake people be awake,or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;the signals we give -- yes or no, or maybe --should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

William Stafford

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A great snug wall goes around everything,has always been there, will alwaysremain. It is a good world to belost in. It comforts you. It isall right. And you sleep.

— William Stafford

Security of character would be like a compass, you know? Other people may say that this way is north, or this way might be north. But the compass just says -- north. That's what we count on.

— William Stafford

CharacterPeopleSecurity

I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing. The real question is, why did other people stop?

— William Stafford

Doing RightPeople

I am a person a dictionary-maker has to contend with. I am a living evidence in the development of language.

— William Stafford

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