Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.
Seamus HeaneyRead
It is very true to say that work done by writers is quite often an attempt to give solid expression to that which is bothering them... They feel they have got it right if they express the stress.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writers often express their internal struggles through their work, finding clarity in the process.
Seamus Heaney suggests that a significant aspect of a writer's craft is rooted in their personal struggles and stress. The act of writing becomes a therapeutic endeavor, allowing them to articulate emotions and thoughts that might be troubling them. When they manage to convey these feelings effectively in their writing, they achieve a sense of fulfillment and correctness in their expression.
Themes
WritingExpressionStressCreativityArt
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on creative writing, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of authentic expression.
More from Seamus Heaney
All quotes →What I've said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar.
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The kinds of truth that art gives us many, many times are small truths. They don't have the resonance of an encyclical from the Pope stating an eternal truth, but they partake of the quality of eternity. There is a sort of timeless delight in them.
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If self is a location, so is love: Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, Here and there and now and then, a stance.
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In my early teens, I acquired a kind of representative status: went on behalf of the family to wakes and funerals and so on. And I would be counted on as an adult contributor when it came to farm work - the hay in the summertime, for example.
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I think that water is immediately interesting. It's just, as an element, it is full of life. It is associated with origin; it is bright - it reflects you.
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