Seamus Heaney

Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.

I'm not personally obsessed with death. At a certain age, the light that you live in is inhabited by the shades - it 'tis.

Anyone born and bred in Northern Ireland can't be too optimistic.

We thought that whatever we wanted to do was right and good, simply because we were Americans, and we would succeed at it because we were Americans.

What I find is most people have a civics book understanding for how Congress works and how a bill moves.

The only thing I command is respect.