Denis Donoghue
Through engagement with others, literature lets us imagine what it would be like to be differe.Collection: Would Be
There is no good reason to suppose that whatever can be felt can be expressed in words, or indeed in any articulate form.Collection: Reason
The camera has an interest in turning history into spectacle, but none in reversing the process. At best, the picture leaves a vague blur in the observer's mind; strong enough to send him into battle perhaps, but not to have him understand why he is going.Collection: Strong
A critical discourse that had respect for the mystery of art would look to the sense of life which finds expression in paradox, metaphor, tautology, and syntax.Collection: Art
The truth of art consists in its power to break the monopoly that those in power exercise by defining what is real.Collection: Art
If there is a distinctive Irish experience, it is one of division, exacerbated by the fact that division in a country so small seems perverse. But the scale doesn't matter.Collection: Country
Knowing that language has done so much, we want to believe that it can do everything.Collection: Believe