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Helen Dunmore Quotes
Helen Dunmore Quotes
Helen Dunmore
British
Poet
Born:
Dec 12
,
1952
Died:
Jun 5
,
2017
Always
Books
History
Language
Writing
You
Related authors:
Carol Ann Duffy
Christina Rossetti
Elizabeth Bibesco
George Herbert
John Donne
Lord Byron
Samuel Butler
Thomas Babington Macaulay
When you are young you don't always realise how full of doubts everybody is.
Helen Dunmore
You
Young
Everybody
Always
How
Realise
Doubts
Full
Writing poetry makes you intensely conscious of how words sound, both aloud and inside the head of the reader. You learn the weight of words and how they sound to the ear.
Helen Dunmore
You
Writing
Words
Inside
Both
Poetry
Weight
Head
Aloud
Learn
Reader
Makes
How
Sound
Intensely
Conscious
Ear
The poets whom I knew then were all men and all seemed dauntingly sure of themselves - although I am sure that really they were as uncertain as I was.
Helen Dunmore
Men
Seemed
Uncertain
Poets
Knew
Sure
Although
Am
Were
Themselves
Then
Really
Whom
The language has got to be fully alive - I can't bear dull, flaccid writing myself and I don't see why any reader should put up with it.
Helen Dunmore
Myself
Writing
Language
Alive
See
Bear
Put
Reader
Got
Dull
Up
Any
Should
Fully
Why
Poets go through a very tough apprenticeship in the use of words.
Helen Dunmore
Words
Tough
Apprenticeship
Poets
Through
Go
Very
Use
My first collection of poems was published by Bloodaxe Books, which was then a very new imprint.
Helen Dunmore
First
Books
Collection
Poems
New
Very
Imprint
Which
Then
Published
If we understand the past, we are more likely to recognise what is happening around us.
Helen Dunmore
Past
Recognise
More
Likely
Around
Understand
Happening
Us
I was always influenced by language.
Helen Dunmore
Language
Always
Influenced
I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to go on for years, and never write the novel at all.
Helen Dunmore
Research
Enjoy
Would
Would-Be
Easy
Fact
Write
Never
Go
Years
In Fact
Engaging
Novel
I didn't choose Russia but Russia chose me. I had been fascinated from an early age by the culture, the language, the literature and the history to the place.
Helen Dunmore
Me
History
Age
Culture
Language
Russia
Had
Been
Literature
Place
Choose
Fascinated
Chose
Early
Early Age
I could start with Mandelstam, who was a huge influence on my early writing.
Helen Dunmore
Writing
Could
Huge
Huge Influence
Influence
Who
Start
Early
I concentrate on the lives of individuals whom the reader comes to know and feel with intimately.
Helen Dunmore
Individuals
Feel
Concentrate
Know
Reader
Whom
Lives
I can remember being in my pram: children stayed in their prams much longer then than they do now. A big bouncy pram with black covers and a hood with metal clips that could trap your fingers. I was looking up at my sister who was sitting on the pram seat, with her back to me.
Helen Dunmore
Me
Remember
Black
Looking
Big
Sister
Back
Hood
Stayed
Fingers
Could
Longer
Metal
Covers
Up
Than
Sitting
Being
Children
Then
Much
Your
Trap
Who
Now
Seat
Her
However, the difficulties and pleasures of the writing itself are similar for a novel with a historical setting and a novel with a contemporary setting, as far as I'm concerned.
Helen Dunmore
Writing
Difficulties
Setting
Pleasures
Similar
Contemporary
Concerned
However
Historical
Itself
As Far As
Far
Novel
However, I began to submit poems to British magazines, and some were accepted. It was a great moment to see my first poems published. It felt like entering a tradition.
Helen Dunmore
Great
First
Submit
Entering
See
Some
Magazines
Poems
Like
Accepted
Felt
Tradition
However
Were
Began
Moment
Published
British
Fiction came quite a while later. I began with short stories and fiction for children.
Helen Dunmore
Later
Came
Began
Quite
Short
Quite A While
Children
Fiction
Stories
Short Stories
While
A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to pour your story into.
Helen Dunmore
You
Pour
Shape
Container
End
Trying
In The End
Story
Which
Your
Novel
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