Seamus Heaney Quotes
It is difficult at times to repress the thought that history is about as instructive as an abattoir.
Quotes to Explore
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At one point, I had a story accepted at the 'New Yorker,' which sent off weird bells in people when I told them - 'Oh,' they thought, 'now you are a writer' - where I really had been for the last 30-odd years.
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I divide criticism into two categories - one coming from those who understand music, who are worthy of being critical because they are knowledgeable about what they are saying; and then there is another category of people who would criticise you anyway, whether your work is good or bad.
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The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.
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The world gets older, without getting either better or worse and so does literature. But I do think that the drab current phenomenon that passes for literary studies in the university will finally provide its own corrective.
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I was born in England, but then I lived in Calgary, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, India, Vancouver, London, Toronto, and now L.A.
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We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.
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Oh, I'm quite the impulse buyer. Most of what I buy is stuff for my Jeep, 'cause it breaks down a lot.
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I'd rather betray the world than let the world betray me.
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We must not let daylight in upon the magic.
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I like working with my own body weight, and I just do the best job I can to be healthy and strong, both before and after a fight.
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Academic institutions in Britain have been infiltrated for years by dangerous theocratic fantasists. I should know: I was one of them.
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Some people manage their writing by saying, 'I need to get 2,000 words written today,' others by saying, 'I will write for X hours.' Not me. I start with a plan for the book, break it down into scenes, and I know what scenes need to get written each day. If the scene takes more words than I thought, so be it.
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The world has become so complex that the idea of a power in which everything comes together and can be controlled in a centralized way is now erroneous.
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So I'm a young boy in the 1940s growing up, seeing Ralph Bunche on a regular basis, seeing Duke Ellington on a regular basis. We know that these people are famous. They're living in the same community as we live in. They go to the same stores and shops.
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I was awfully curious to find out why I didn't go insane.
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Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
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OK, I'll put it like this: I doubt if we will see another All-American basketball athlete who is a Rhodes Scholar.
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I was excited by the idea of playing a Nazi.
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The stream of civilisation flows on like a river: it is rapid in mid- current, slow at the sides, and has its backwaters. At best, civilisation advances by spirals.
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What's important is the work that you're doing, not the country that you're in. I would much rather be in a play at the Royal Court than in Los Angeles making 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.'
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The discovery of HIV in 1983 and the proof that it was the cause of AIDS in 1984 were the first major scientific breakthroughs that provided a specific target for blood-screening tests and opened the doorway to the development of antiretroviral medications.
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People don't remember that during the Fifties and Sixties there was a Cold War, and kids were getting under their desks during school because they thought they were going to get bombed. So it wasn't really that ideal at all.
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The only form of fiction in which real characters do not seem out of place is history. In novels they are detestable.
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It is difficult at times to repress the thought that history is about as instructive as an abattoir.
