The Ireland I now inhabit is one that these Irish contemporaries have helped to imagine. Seamus Heaney contemporaryhelpimagine Change image and share on social
The gift of writing is to be self-forgetful, to get a surge of inner life or inner supply or unexpected sense of empowerment, to be afloat, to be out of yourself. Seamus Heaney afloatempowermentforgetful Change image and share on social
Anybody serious about poetry knows how hard it is to achieve anything worthwhile in it. Seamus Heaney achievehardpoetry Change image and share on social
The experiment of poetry, as far as I am concerned, happens when the poem carries you beyond where you could have reasonably expected to go. Seamus Heaney carryconcernexpect Change image and share on social
Your temperament is what you write with, but it's also how you deal with the world. Seamus Heaney dealtemperamentworld Change image and share on social
I've been in the habit of helping people. Seamus Heaney habithavehelp Change image and share on social
I believe we are put here to improve civilisation. Seamus Heaney civilisationimproveput Change image and share on social
In my early teens, I acquired a kind of representative status: went on behalf of the family to wakes and funerals and so on. And I would be counted on as an adult contributor when it came to farm work - the hay in the summertime, for example. Seamus Heaney acquireadultbehalf share on social
The amount of sensory material stored up or stored down in the brain's and the body's systems is inestimable. It's like a culture at the bottom of a jar, although it doesn't grow, I think, or help anything else to grow unless you find a way to reach it and touch it. Seamus Heaney amountbodybottom share on social
Memory has always been fundamental for me. In fact, remembering what I had forgotten is the way most of the poems get started. Seamus Heaney factforgetfundamental Change image and share on social
