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Dennis O'Driscoll Quotes

Dennis O'Driscoll was an Irish poet, essayist, critic and editor. Regarded as one of the best European poets of his time, Eileen Battersby considered him "the lyric equivalent of William Trevor" and a better poet "by far" than Raymond Carver. Gerard Smyth regarded him as "one of poetry's true champions and certainly its most prodigious archivist". His book on Seamus Heaney is regarded as the definitive biography of the Nobel laureate. Wikipedia  

✵ 1. January 1954 – 24. December 2012
Dennis O'Driscoll: 30 quotes2 likes

Famous Dennis O'Driscoll Quotes

“Language is at the heart of poetry and it is difficult to commandeer words which elicit no personal echo. Of what we can speak, we need not be silent.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Interview with Eugene O'Connell 'Cork Literary Review vol xiii 2009
Poetry Quotes

“Writers are not neccessarily articulate simply because poetry is their stock-in-trade.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Introduction -'Stepping Stones' interviews with Seamus Heaney Faber & Faber 2009
Poetry Quotes

“I am wedded to the notion that Inspiration is the sine que non, the non negotiable prelude to writing a poem.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“Seamus Heaney is no more Irish than that other poet of the local, universal and eternal, James Joyce. Both men think locally and globally.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Book Depository interview with Mark Thwaite 2009
Other Quotes

“Usually what is termed 'Inspiration' means the ingredients are garnered for you and you must concoct a suitable recipe.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“A defining mark of poetry is that it defies definition.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Introduction - ' The Bloodaxe Book of Poetry Quotations' ed. Dennis O'Driscoll 2006
Other Quotes

Dennis O'Driscoll Quotes

“Poetry is a highly visible art in Ireland; in our rapidly secularised society, it has become a kind of erzatz religion, applying the elevated ceremonial language without the divisive doctrine.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Other Quotes

“There is a democratic but deluded post-modern fantasy whereby everybody is demed an artist.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Other Quotes

“Poetry is nothing less than an aspiration to absolute truth.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Interview wiyh Kieran Owens ' The Event Guide' December 2002
Other Quotes

“Everybody has certain preoccupations they return to. What looks like an obsession, is often something more modest, namely a return to the fray through a somewhat different angle of vision.. from a different stage of your experience.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Other Quotes

“I am very driven when it comes to poetry, a complete obsessive of the truth be told.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“All poets face the same task to 'follow the prompts' and satisfactorily shape the amorphous sounds, rhythms, images or phrases by which a potential poem is recognised.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“I would say that poetry for most people is like the Christmas tree that is kept in the attic and is taken down in its appropriate season.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“I am completely passive about my poetry, unless I sense the rhythms, see the images and hear the words spontaneously, I am helpless.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“Poetry is most convincing when its elements have been lived.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“What we call inspiration in poetry is usually a visitation of words and rhythms rather than ideas.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“If poets spoke their poetry, they would not need to write it.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“The rhythm of poetry and the routine of work are interdependent for some poets”

Dennis O'Driscoll

'Sing for the Taxman-Poetry Magazine-Poetry Foundation May 1 2009
Poetry Quotes

“However much poetry may be respected in Ireland, this respect more often translates, in practice, into tolerance and acceptance, rather than support. Poetry is a 'nice' thing to live with, as long as it does not come too close.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Other Quotes

“There is no one way 'correct' way of becoming a writer. The very quirks and eccentricities which a workshop will probably discourage may in fact be the aspiring writer's most valuable capital in the longer term. Would be literary Samsons should be wary of enrolling in a hairdressing school.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“Even the Revenue is better loved by the twenty first century Irish natives than were the English colonists who ruled from Dublin Castle in earlier centuries.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

'Sing for the Taxman' -Poetry Magazine-Poetry Foundation May 1 2009
Having lived in Ireland all my life I can hardly be more 'Irish', in ways that are invisible to me. My inclination is to play down my Irishness rather than whip it up. Nothing is more potentially damaging to an Irish writer than buying into the myth that we have some locutions and the so called ' gift of the gab' too many Irish writers have fall prey to such delusions.
Interview ,Mark Thwaite, 12th August 2005. 'Ready Steady Book for literature'
Other Quotes

“I put all my poetry in long hand, try to let the idea marinate as long as possible, clinging to the commonplace notion of a creative connection between the movement of the hand and the flow of imagination.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“I know I am in the grip of a true poem when I can hardly bear to read it calmly at first.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“Sheer power of a great poem is enough to guarantee that it will ultimately make itself felt, if the reader is in a receptive mood.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Interview Michael Garvey @Irish Literary Supplement' Fall 1998
Poetry Quotes

“Genuine poetry reminds us how little we truly know, it is a vehicle for discovery, not a conduit for omniscience.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Interview by email with Elizabeth MacDonald 2004, published 'Poetry Ireland Review'
Poetry Quotes

“The priority for the poet must be his poetry, the poetry must determine his agenda and deadlines”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

“I love the way form and rhythm can somehow confer a higher destiny on even the most workaday words.”

Dennis O'Driscoll

Poetry Quotes

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