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" The gift of writing is to be self-forgetful, to get a surge of inner life or inner supply or unexpected sense of empowerment, to be afloat, to be out of yourself. "

Seamus Heaney

Writing

Gift

Life

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Seamus Heaney

People

Alive

" The problem as you get older... is that you become more self-aware. At the same time, you have to surprise yourself. There's no way of arranging the surprise, so it is tricky. "

" I think of the bog as a feminine goddess-ridden ground, rather like the territory of Ireland itself. "

Seamus Heaney

Ground

Ireland

" Since I was a schoolboy, I've been used to being recognized on the road by old and young, and being bantered with and, indeed, being taunted. "

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" Then as the years went on and my listening became more deliberate, I would climb up on an arm of our big sofa to get my ear closer to the wireless speaker. "

Seamus Heaney

Climb

Big

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