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 Copy Share Image
Mourning Ruby is not a flat landscape: it is more like a box with pictures painted on every face. And each face is also… — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn't work, throw it away. It's a nice feeling, and you don't want to be cluttered with… — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
“The word 'personal' is one of my aversions. Personal loan. Personal hygiene. Personal safety. It's only a way of wrapping up bad news that… — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
I can remember being in my pram: children stayed in their prams much longer then than they do now. A big bouncy pram with… — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
“Dad was alive. I believed Conor, but I still didn't really know it. But now I do.” — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to pour your story into. — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
“Fear of this order is not an emotion. It is like a virus overwhelming every cell of his body, while his mind struggles to… — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
I could start with Mandelstam, who was a huge influence on my early writing. — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
My first collection of poems was published by Bloodaxe Books, which was then a very new imprint. — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
“It seemed to me that there was a self-interest hidden in the core of all of us, which cooled us when we contemplated any… — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk. — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
“You have to keep on with a house, day after day, I think. Heating, cleaning, opening and closing windows, making sounds to fill the… — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
I hope that readers will tear through my books because they can't stop themselves - and then, maybe, read them again and find new… — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
