# Quote — Mary Oliver, Dream Work

> You do not have to be good.
>
> You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
>
> You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

- Author: [Mary Oliver](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-oliver.md)
- Book: [Dream Work](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-oliver/dream-work.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_Oliver#Dream_Work_(1986)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-oliver/dream-work/you-do-not

## More from this book

> And now I understand something so frightening, and wonderful — how the mind clings to the road it knows, rushing through crossroads, sticking like lint to the familiar.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mary-oliver/dream-work/and-now-i-understand.md)