I didn't choose Russia but Russia chose me. I had been fascinated from an early age by the culture, the language, the literature and the history to the place.

Quote by Helen Dunmore

Topics: Helen Dunmore Quotes

Poets go through a very tough apprenticeship in the use of words.

Poets go through a very tough apprenticeship in the use of words.

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

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

Writing poetry makes you intensely conscious of how words sound, both aloud and inside the...

Writing poetry makes you intensely conscious of how words sound, both aloud and inside the...

I can remember being in my pram: children stayed in their prams much longer then...

I can remember being in my pram: children stayed in their prams much longer then...

I would like people to come into my Dreamworld and then choose to stay.

I would like people to come into my Dreamworld and then choose to stay.

The poets whom I knew then were all men and all seemed dauntingly sure of...

The poets whom I knew then were all men and all seemed dauntingly sure of...

The language has got to be fully alive - I can't bear dull, flaccid writing...

The language has got to be fully alive - I can't bear dull, flaccid writing...

I could start with Mandelstam, who was a huge influence on my early writing.

I could start with Mandelstam, who was a huge influence on my early writing.

Mourning Ruby is not a flat landscape: it is more like a box with pictures...

Mourning Ruby is not a flat landscape: it is more like a box with pictures...

I have learned so much from working with other poets, travelling and reading with them,...

I have learned so much from working with other poets, travelling and reading with them,...

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

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

A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to...

A novel, in the end, is a container, a shape which you are trying to...

If we understand the past, we are more likely to recognise what is happening around...

If we understand the past, we are more likely to recognise what is happening around...

Fiction came quite a while later. I began with short stories and fiction for children.

Fiction came quite a while later. I began with short stories and fiction for children.

However, I began to submit poems to British magazines, and some were accepted. It was...

However, I began to submit poems to British magazines, and some were accepted. It was...

It is a violation which has obsessed the tyrants of the twentieth century. They do...

It is a violation which has obsessed the tyrants of the twentieth century. They do...

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

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

I hope that readers will tear through my books because they can't stop themselves -...

I hope that readers will tear through my books because they can't stop themselves -...

I was always influenced by language.

I was always influenced by language.

I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to...

I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to...