"taught me a lot about the normal and the abnormal, and the distance between them. He's out there by himself. You get the jump in the feet when you read certain passages by him. That's the mark of truly great writing. It gives you the jump in the feet."

Dermot Healy Literature See all quotes by Dermot Healy →

React to this quote

More by Dermot Healy

“I like the idea of stopping mid-sentence, like Graham Greene.”

“I know writing is what I do but I still don't see myself as one.”

“I rang up this publisher and they asked me what I was doing at the time. I told them I was a house-painter, so first of all they had me come round and paint the place. Only later did they consider my work and Banished Misfortune was published.”

“I often find poems hand written in old abandoned notebooks.”

“I'm no good at dinner parties. I feel very uneasy at them.”

“The Bible has entered much of my work as have Latin and Greek mythology and verse.”

Resonant Thoughts

"It would be a sad thing for an artist if he knew how to paint. – so sad. An artist paints because it is a challenge to him – it is like trying to twist the devil. If you overcome it, there is no sport…"

— Arshile Gorky

Art1904–1948

#art

"The crucial question...what is NATO for? ...From the beginning.. we had drilled into our heads that the purpose of NATO was to defend us from the Russian hordes... OK, 1991, no more Russian hordes. Th…"

— Noam Chomsky

Philosophy1928

#love

"When a man is in a fair way and sees all life open in front of him, he seems to himself to make a very important figure in the world. His horse whinnies to him; the trumpets blow and the girls look ou…"

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Literature1850–1894

#life

"There is a secret agreement between past generations and the present one. Our coming was expected on earth. Like every generation that preceded us, we have been endowed with a weak Messianic power, a …"

— Walter Benjamin

Literature1892–1940

#time