I don't think my intelligence is naturally analytic or political.

I think of Dermot Healy as the heir to Patrick Kavanagh.

A public expectation, it has to be said, not of poetry as such but of political positions variously approvable by mutually disapproving groups.

Whether it be a matter of personal relations within a marriage or political initiatives within a peace process, there is no sure-fire do-it-yourself kit.

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center.

The amount of sensory material stored up or stored down in the brain's and the body's systems is inestimable. It's like a culture at the bottom of a jar, although it doesn't grow, I think, or help anything else to grow unless you find a way to reach it and touch it.