“Anybody serious about poetry knows how hard it is to achieve anything ...” — Seamus Heaney Quote

“Anybody serious about poetry knows how hard it is to achieve anything worthwhile in it.”

“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.”

“Let whoever can win glory before death.”

“The poet, therefore, is truly the thief of fire.”

“when I am feeling”

“What does that represent? There was never any question in plastic art, in poetry, in music, of representing anything. It is a matter of making something beautiful, moving, or dramatic - this is by no means the same thing.”