Happy Birthday, Sebastian Barry, born 5 July 1955.
Five Quotes
- Be mad enough to believe in yourself implicitly.
- All of us inevitably become experienced in the world, by the mere process of living in it; but my ideal reader perhaps can put aside the cargo of experience somewhat, and access also their original innocence, so that that sense is also brought to the book in their lap.
- Morality has its own civil wars, with its own victims in their own time and place.
- I do believe writing for a writer is as natural as birdsong to a robin. I do believe you can ferry back a lost heart and soul in the small boat of a novel or a play. That plays and novels are a version of the afterlife, a more likely one maybe than that extravagant notion of heaven we were reared on. That true lives can nest in the actual syntax of language. I write because I can’t resist the sound of the engine of a book, the adventure of beginning, and the possible glimpses of new landscapes as one goes through. Not to mention the excitement of breaking a toe in the potholes.
- The human animal began as a mere wriggling thing in the ancient seas, struggling out onto land with many regrets. That is what brings us so full of longing to the sea.
Sebastian Barry is an Irish playwright, novelist, and poet. He is considered one of Ireland’s finest writers. Titles include Days Without End and The Secret Scripture.
Source for Image
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