Dowd Quotes McGrory Quoting Yeats

When Maureen Dowd was on Larry King last week, Larry asked her a typical junior high question if she found writing easy. Her reply:

No, I find writing — what did Mary McGrory used to quote? It is about going down into the marrow of your bones.

Vila H. of The Smoking Section caught that that was originally from Yeats. His poem 'Adam's Curse' in particular. Below is the first stanza:

We sat together at one summer's end,
That beautiful mild woman, your close friend,
And you and I, and talked of poetry.
I said, 'A line will take us hours maybe;
Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,
Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.
Better go down upon your marrow-bones
And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones
Like an old pauper, in all kinds of weather;
For to articulate sweet sounds together
Is to work harder than all these, and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen
The martyrs call the world.'

The rest of the poem can be found here. Just listening to Dowd can be so educational and inspiring.