“Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.”
Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer
Source: Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996
"Digging", line 25, from Death of a Naturalist (1966).
Poetry Quotes, Death of a Naturalist
“Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.”
Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer
Source: Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996
“To live and to write, it's all the same, both together, for the pen is my spade”
Imre Kertész book Kaddish for an Unborn Child
Kaddish for a Child Not Born (1990)
Context: To live and to write, it's all the same, both together, for the pen is my spade; when I look ahead I only look back, when I stare at the paper I only see the past: she crossed that bluish green carpet as if she were crossing the sea because she wanted to talk to me, for she found out that I was "B.", author and literary translator, one of whose "works" had read, and which she definitely wanted to discuss with me, she said, and we talked and talked until we talked ourselves into bed — Good God! — and continued to talk even then, uninterrupted.
Mel Brooks (1926) American director, writer, actor, and producer
The 2,000 Year Old Man (and sequels)
Variant: Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.
Graham Greene (1904–1991) English writer, playwright and literary critic
International Herald Tribune (October 7, 1977)