Home > Author > Declan Kiberd
1 " A man [Joyce] whose earliest stories appeared next to the manure prices in the Irish Homestead knew that columns of prose, like columns of shit, could both recultivate the earth. "
― Declan Kiberd , Ulysses And Us: The Art Of Everyday Living
2 " Our national poet WB Yeats said that every Irish writer had a decision to take: whether to express Ireland or exploit it. In his day, the choice lay between expressing the nation to itself or exploiting it for the amused condescension of a mainly overseas audience.Holding a mirror up to the people was a risky business: many, seeing an unflattering image, were inclined to smash the glass in anger. "
― Declan Kiberd
3 " for journalists words are simply tokens to be arranged and rearranged indifferently. But for an artist there can be only one ideal order. "
― Declan Kiberd , Ulysses
4 " His brother Stanislaus noted that he had early in life resigned himself to the marginality of the male, who did not expect to be the main purpose of a woman’s life, knowing that sooner or later children would take his place. In Ulysses he showed how that sense of increasing isolation, following the birth of children, is countered in the male by an attempt to reincarnate in himself those female elements which are disappearing from his life. "
5 " Declan Kiberd: Irish writers were an early warning system about abuseArtists played a vital role in the State's formation and since independence have held it to account "
