The language has got to be fully alive - I can't bear dull, flaccid writing myself and I don't see why any reader should put up with it.
Helen Dunmore

The poets whom I knew then were all men and all seemed dauntingly sure of themselves - although I am sure that really they were as uncertain as I was.
Helen Dunmore

Those who try to obliterate the past are injuring the present.
Helen Dunmore

To try to expunge an individual's history is a terrible violation.
Helen Dunmore

When you are young you don't always realise how full of doubts everybody is.
Helen Dunmore

Writing children's books gives a writer a very strong sense of narrative drive.
Helen Dunmore

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