Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn’t work, throw it away. — Helen Dunmore Funny Copy Share Image
I would like people to come into my Dreamworld and then choose to stay. — Helen Dunmore People Copy Share Image
To try to expunge an individual's history is a terrible violation. — Helen Dunmore History Copy Share Image
Fiction came quite a while later. I began with short stories and fiction for children. — Helen Dunmore Began Copy Share Image
Writing children's books gives a writer a very strong sense of narrative drive. — Helen Dunmore Book Copy Share Image
I concentrate on the lives of individuals whom the reader comes to know and feel with intimately. — Helen Dunmore Books Copy Share Image
A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to pour your story into. — Helen Dunmore Books Copy Share Image
However, I began to submit poems to British magazines, and some were accepted. It was a great moment to see my first… — Helen Dunmore Accepted Copy Share Image
Children will not pretend to be enjoying books, and they will not read books because they have been told that these books… — Helen Dunmore Because Copy Share Image
“I wish I was away in Ingo Far across the briny sea Sailing over deepest waters Where neither care nor worry trouble… — Helen Dunmore Care Copy Share Image
It is a violation which has obsessed the tyrants of the twentieth century. They do not want simply to kill their opponents,… — Helen Dunmore Century Copy Share Image
“They stand close for a while, not touching, but breathing each other's breath. The city is silent now, as if for peace.” — Helen Dunmore Peace Copy Share Image
Writing poetry makes you intensely conscious of how words sound, both aloud and inside the head of the reader. You learn the… — Helen Dunmore Books Copy Share Image
I didn't choose Russia but Russia chose me. I had been fascinated from an early age by the culture, the language, the… — Helen Dunmore Age 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… — Helen Dunmore Fear Copy Share Image
“They wanted spring, of course they wanted it, more than anything. They longed for sun with every pore of their skin. But… — Helen Dunmore Spring 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… — 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… — Helen Dunmore Corpses 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… — Helen Dunmore Bigs Copy Share Image
“You live in the past,’ Kate said. ‘You live in your grandfather’s time.’ But she was wrong. The past was not something… — Helen Dunmore Life Copy Share Image
“Listen to what you have written. A dud rhythm in a passage of dialogue may show that you don't yet understand the… — Helen Dunmore Characters Copy Share Image
If the garden of Eden really exists it does so moment by moment, fragmented and tough, cropping up like a fan of… — Helen Dunmore Becoming Copy Share Image
I have learned so much from working with other poets, travelling and reading with them, spending days discussing poems in progress. There… — Helen Dunmore Discussing Copy Share Image
“He said a fortuneteller had told Mum's fortune once, and after that, she's never gone out on sea again. It was years… — Helen Dunmore Years ago Copy Share Image
My first collection of poems was published by Bloodaxe Books, which was then a very new imprint. — Helen Dunmore Book Copy Share Image
For you where never my blood sister so no more shall I call you little sister — Helen Dunmore Blood Copy Share Image
A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk. — Helen Dunmore Ifs Copy Share Image
I could start with Mandelstam, who was a huge influence on my early writing. — Helen Dunmore Could Copy Share Image
“As long as you two look out for each other, you’ll be safe enough.” — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
Those who try to obliterate the past are injuring the present. — Helen Dunmore Genocide Copy Share Image
If we understand the past, we are more likely to recognise what is happening around us. — Helen Dunmore Learning Copy Share Image
When you are young you don't always realise how full of doubts everybody is. — Helen Dunmore Doubt Copy Share Image
Poets go through a very tough apprenticeship in the use of words. — Helen Dunmore Apprenticeship Copy Share Image
“Dad was alive. I believed Conor, but I still didn't really know it. But now I do.” — Helen Dunmore Dad Copy Share Image