“Carl sat musing until the sun leaped above the prairie, and in the grass about him all the small creatures of day began to tune their tiny instruments. Birds and insects without number began to chirp, to twitter, to snap and whistle, to make all manner of fresh shrill noises. The pasture was flooded with light; every clump of ironweed and snow-on-the-mountain threw a long shadow, and the golden light seemed to be rippling through the curly grass like the tide racing in.”
Willa Cather“Pittsburgh was even more vital, more creative, more hungry for culture than New York. Pittsburgh was the birthplace of my writing.”
Willa Cather“Miracles surround us at every turn, if we but sharpen our perceptions to them.”
Willa Cather“Constant comparisons are the stamp of the foreigner; one continually translates manners and customs of a new country into terms of his own, before he can fully comprehend them.”
Willa Cather, Willa Cather in Europe: Her Own Story of the First Journey“The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own.”
Willa Cather“What was any art but a mould in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself - life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose.”
Willa Cather“The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.”
Willa Cather“There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.”
Willa Cather“Where there is great love, there are always wishes.”
Willa Cather“All the intelligence and talent in the world can't make a singer. The voice is a wild thing. It can't be bred in captivity. It is a sport, like the silver fox. It happens.”
Willa Cather“That is happiness to be dissolved into something complete and great.”
Willa Cather