Derek Mahon Quotes & Sayings

Everything Is Going to Be All Right
How should I not be glad to contemplate
the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
but there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
and the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right. — Derek Mahon

You with your light meter and relaxed itinerary,
Let not our naive labours have been in vain! — Derek Mahon

At the heart of the ridiculous, the sublime — Derek Mahon

The little things that you saw with a child's eye and that will never go away. That's what consciousness is all about. — Derek Mahon

It's practically my subject, my theme: solitude and community; the weirdness and terrors of solitude: the stifling and consolations of community. Also, the consolations of solitude. — Derek Mahon