Seamus Heaney

"The poem is a small machine made of words that can alter consciousness."

"To read is to be changed by the encounter with another mind."

"The particularity of place and time is always the subject of genuine poetry."

"To write well is to write with full responsibility for every word."

"The past is not something we leave behind but something we carry with us."

"In poetry, the commonplace becomes luminous through attention and care."

"To be a poet is to be awake to the possibilities of language."

"The work of art is a gift to the reader, offered without guarantee of reception."

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

"Believe that a further shore is reachable from here."

"Whatever is given to you, give something back."

"The word 'ordinary' is the real poetry."

"I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness echoing."

"Between my finger and my thumb the squat pen rests."

"History says, Don't hope on this side of the grave."

"Once in a lifetime the longed-for tidal wave comes lapping at the shore."

"Feel free. And don't feel bad about your freedom."

"The end comes when we acknowledge the unattainable."

"A poet must be a thinking being and a feeling being."

"Digging is the metaphor for all human work."

"In the whole economy of nature, the beauty is not in the things themselves but in our perception of them."

"We all live in a kind of state of siege."

"Language is power, and some people know this too well."

"The good of the work is in the work."

"You must always have an image of yourself that sustains you."

"The word is out there like a found thing."

"Every translation is ultimately a betrayal."

"The authentic is when you stop thinking about it."

"Poetry can make nothing happen, but it matters."

"Competence and confidence come from exact knowledge of what you're dealing with."