Quote collection
40 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"If there is a heaven, Jane Austen is sitting in a small room with Mother Teresa and Princess Diana, listening to Duran Duran, forever. If there's a hell, she's standing."
"I'm not recognised that much. I'm just a bald man in glasses and there's a rash of them in Dublin. It'd be different if I had a mohican."
"You know people are always putting Ulysses in the top 10 books ever written but I doubt that any of those people were really moved by it."
"It's a big con job. We have sold the myth of Dublin as a sexy place incredibly well; because it is a dreary little dump most of the time."
"Some of the people who look the most normal are probably the maddest people trying to look normal."
"I see people in terms of dialogue and I believe that people are their talk."
"Good ideas are often murdered by better ones."
"When I'm writing I just think there's only the page and me and nobody else."
"No matter how close to personal experience a story might be, inevitably you are going to get to a part that isn't yours and, actually, whether it happened or not becomes irrelevant. It is all about choosing the right words."
"Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph. Until you get to page 50. Then calm down, and start worrying about the quality. Do feel anxiety - it's the job."
"I wouldn't go out of my way to experience the indignity of middle-age just because it might be good meat for a story."
"When I was a kid, if you didn't speak Irish, you really wanted to. And you played Gaelic games and you didn't pay any attention to what was happening in the outside world, because really, the - Ireland was the center of the universe. And I don't think that's the case anymore, although, admittedly, it is the center of the universe."
"It's great meeting children because you never know what they will say."
"If you're from Dublin, for example, chances are you live with your family, if you're lucky enough to, right up to the mid-20s. And most of the people I know, when they finally sort of set off on their own, they don't stray all that far."
"If you are a writer you're at home, which means you're out of touch. You have to make excuses to get out there and look at how the world is changing."
"The Irish are the niggers of Europe, lads."
"To claim that music is more important than oxygen would be trite and sentimental. It would also be true."
"She'd tried her hand at most things, but drew the line at honesty."
"When you grow up on an island, what matters is how you stand to the sea."
"I wasn't even aware of the Year of the Family. I couldn't give a toss. These things - the year of the family, the year of the three-legged dog. I think it's all trash."