Willa Cather's Quotes

Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile, his friends are everything.

Willa Cather

The condition every art requires is, not so much freedom from restriction, as freedom from adulteration and from the intrusion of foreign matter.

Willa Cather

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.

Willa Cather

I shall not die of a cold. I shall die of having lived.

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

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.

Willa Cather

The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own.

Willa Cather

The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.

Willa Cather