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

— Mary Oliver

Last update Oct. 27, 2021. History

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Mary Oliver 98

American writer 1935–2019

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“From the simplest lyric to the most complex novel and densest drama, literature is asking us to pay attention. Pay attention to the frog. Pay attention to the west wind. Pay attention to the boy on the raft, the lady in the tower, the old man on the train. In sum, pay attention to the world and all that dwells therein and thereby learn at last to pay attention to yourself and all that dwells therein.”

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“Pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, so you can pay attention to what really has your attention.”

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“At some point when I wasn’t paying attention, comedic genocide just stopped working for me.”

James Nicoll (1961) Canadian fiction reviewer

Review of T. Kingfisher's Nine Goblins http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/basically-i-have-no-sense-of-humour, 2013
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Context: At some point when I wasn’t paying attention, comedic genocide just stopped working for me. This is a shame because so much fantasy and SF depends on genocide as positive plot element. This trifling oddity of taste must have robbed me of hours of morally equivocal entertainment.