Dennis O'Driscoll 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Interview, Mark Thwaite, 12th August 2005, 'Ready Steady Books for literature'

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

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.

Our creative habits are as mysterious to each other as our domestic habits.

A defining mark of poetry is that it defies definition.

Poetry is most convincing when its elements have been lived.

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.

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

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.