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Seamus Heaney Quotes

I have always thought of poems as stepping stones in one’s own sense of oneself. Every now and again, you write a poem that gives you self-respect and steadies your going a little bit farther out in the stream. At the same time, you have to conjure the next stepping stone because the stream, we hope, keeps flowing Picture Quote #1

Anybody serious about poetry knows how hard it is to achieve anything worthwhile in it Picture Quote #1

I’m not personally obsessed with death. At a certain age, the light that you live in is inhabited by the shades - it ‘tis Picture Quote #1

I think that water is immediately interesting. It’s just, as an element, it is full of life. It is associated with origin; it is bright - it reflects you Picture Quote #1

The experimental poetry thing is not my thing. It’s a programme of the avant-garde: basically a refusal of the kind of poetry I write Picture Quote #1

In a war situation or where violence and injustice are prevalent, poetry is called upon to be something more than a thing of beauty Picture Quote #1

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Harvard meant a lot in my writing life from the beginning, even though I didn’t actually do much composition on the spot Picture Quote #1

My teaching was animated by what I was reading and being excited by as a poet Picture Quote #1

I’ve said it before about the Nobel Prize: it’s like being struck by a more or less benign avalanche. It was unexpected, unlooked for, and extraordinary Picture Quote #1

Since I was a schoolboy, I’ve been used to being recognized on the road by old and young, and being bantered with and, indeed, being taunted Picture Quote #1

I feel myself part of something. Not only being part of a community but part of an actual moment and a movement of Irish writing and art. That sense of being part of the whole thing is the deepest joy Picture Quote #1

My father was a creature of the archaic world, really. He would have been entirely at home in a Gaelic hill-fort. His side of the family, and the houses I associate with his side of the family, belonged to a traditional rural Ireland Picture Quote #1

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What I’ve said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar Picture Quote #1

I can’t think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people’s understanding of what’s going on in the world Picture Quote #1

If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now and then, a stance Picture Quote #1

Whether it be a matter of personal relations within a marriage or political initiatives within a peace process, there is no sure-fire do-it-yourself kit Picture Quote #1

Dylan Thomas is now as much a case history as a chapter in the history of poetry Picture Quote #1

I would say that something important for me and for my generation in Northern Ireland was the 1947 Education Act, which allowed students who won scholarships to go on to secondary schools and thence to university Picture Quote #1

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Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what’s said and what’s done Picture Quote #1

The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don’t have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them Picture Quote #1

If you go into an underground train in London - probably anywhere, but chiefly in London - there’s that sense of almost entering a ghostly dimension. People are very still and quiet; they don’t exchange many pleasantries Picture Quote #1

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 Picture Quote #1

The ability to start out upon your own impulse is fundamental to the gift of keeping going upon your own terms. . . . Getting started, keeping going, getting started again in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm Picture Quote #1

In the United States, in poetry workshops, it’s now quite a thing to make graduate students learn poems by heart Picture Quote #1

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Tom Sleigh’s poetry is hard-earned and well founded. I great admire the way it refuses to cut emotional corners and yet achieves a sense of lyric absolution Picture Quote #1

You had to come back to learn how to lose yourself, to be pilot and stray-witch, Hansel and Gretel in one Picture Quote #1

In Northern Ireland, helicopters are not usually used to promote poetry Picture Quote #1

We go to poetry, we go to literature in general, to be forwarded within ourselves Picture Quote #1

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 Picture Quote #1

Poetry is always slightly mysterious, and you wonder what is your relationship to it Picture Quote #1

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I have always thought of poems as stepping stones in one’s own sense of oneself. Every now and again, you write a poem that gives you self-respect and steadies your going a little bit farther out in the stream. At the same time, you have to conjure the next stepping stone because the stream, we hope, keeps flowing (Seamus Heaney Quotes) Anybody serious about poetry knows how hard it is to achieve anything worthwhile in it (Seamus Heaney Quotes) I’m not personally obsessed with death. At a certain age, the light that you live in is inhabited by the shades - it ‘tis. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) I think that water is immediately interesting. It’s just, as an element, it is full of life. It is associated with origin; it is bright - it reflects you. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) The experimental poetry thing is not my thing. It’s a programme of the avant-garde: basically a refusal of the kind of poetry I write. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) In a war situation or where violence and injustice are prevalent, poetry is called upon to be something more than a thing of beauty. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) Harvard meant a lot in my writing life from the beginning, even though I didn’t actually do much composition on the spot. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) My teaching was animated by what I was reading and being excited by as a poet (Seamus Heaney Quotes) I’ve said it before about the Nobel Prize: it’s like being struck by a more or less benign avalanche. It was unexpected, unlooked for, and extraordinary. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) Since I was a schoolboy, I’ve been used to being recognized on the road by old and young, and being bantered with and, indeed, being taunted. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) I feel myself part of something. Not only being part of a community but part of an actual moment and a movement of Irish writing and art. That sense of being part of the whole thing is the deepest joy. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) My father was a creature of the archaic world, really. He would have been entirely at home in a Gaelic hill-fort. His side of the family, and the houses I associate with his side of the family, belonged to a traditional rural Ireland. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) What I’ve said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) I can’t think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people’s understanding of what’s going on in the world. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now and then, a stance. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) Whether it be a matter of personal relations within a marriage or political initiatives within a peace process, there is no sure-fire do-it-yourself kit. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) Dylan Thomas is now as much a case history as a chapter in the history of poetry (Seamus Heaney Quotes) I would say that something important for me and for my generation in Northern Ireland was the 1947 Education Act, which allowed students who won scholarships to go on to secondary schools and thence to university. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what’s said and what’s done. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don’t have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) If you go into an underground train in London - probably anywhere, but chiefly in London - there’s that sense of almost entering a ghostly dimension. People are very still and quiet; they don’t exchange many pleasantries. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) 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 Quotes) The ability to start out upon your own impulse is fundamental to the gift of keeping going upon your own terms. . . . Getting started, keeping going, getting started again in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) In the United States, in poetry workshops, it’s now quite a thing to make graduate students learn poems by heart. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) Tom Sleigh’s poetry is hard-earned and well founded. I great admire the way it refuses to cut emotional corners and yet achieves a sense of lyric absolution. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) You had to come back to learn how to lose yourself, to be pilot and stray-witch, Hansel and Gretel in one. (Seamus Heaney Quotes) In Northern Ireland, helicopters are not usually used to promote poetry (Seamus Heaney Quotes) We go to poetry, we go to literature in general, to be forwarded within ourselves (Seamus Heaney Quotes) 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 Quotes) Poetry is always slightly mysterious, and you wonder what is your relationship to it (Seamus Heaney Quotes)

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