The language has got to be fully alive - I can't bear dull, flaccid writing myself and I don't see why 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
I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to go on for years, and never write… — Helen Dunmore Copy Share Image
I could start with Mandelstam, who was a huge influence on my early writing. — Helen Dunmore 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 Copy Share Image
However, the difficulties and pleasures of the writing itself are similar for a novel with a historical setting and a novel with… — Helen Dunmore 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 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 Copy Share Image
Writing children's books gives a writer a very strong sense of narrative drive. — Helen Dunmore 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 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
![“Listen to what you have written. A dud rhythm in a passage of dialogue may show that you don't yet understand the characters well enough to write in their voices." [ Ten rules for writing fiction ( The Guardian , 20 February 2010)]” quote by Helen Dunmore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/82b/helen-dunmore-12115_characters_listen-to-what-you-have-written-a-dud-rh_777882.jpg)
