After that dark woman you search for someone who will fit into the irregular corners of your heart.

It is increasingly clear that the fate of the universe will come to depend more and more on individuals as the bungling of bureaucracy permeates every corner of our existence.

History is said to be written by the victors. Fiction, by contrast, is largely the work of injured bystanders.

When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.

The vote means nothing to women. We should be armed.

Ordinary life bypassed me, but I also bypassed it. It couldn't have been any other way.Conventional life and conventional people are not for me.

Writing is like carrying a fetus.

never forget this moment, the hum of the bee, the saffron threads of the flower, the drawn blinds, nature's assiduousness and human cruelty.

... a country encapsulates our childhood and those lanes, byres, fields, flowers, insects, suns, moons and stars are forever reoccurring.

Promiscuity is the death of love.

I'm an Irish Catholic and I have a long iceberg of guilt.

So many men treat their wives badly, or indifferently, or with barely contained impatience. Josh doesn't mind-- no that's not right--he insists on openly showing his love and respect for me.

Complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress. The contented soul is the stagnant soul.

And the visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright.

Some bridges you crossed on your own, no matter who drove you to the edge

The most solid stone in the structure is the lowest one in the foundation.

To me, the [British] Open is the tournament I would come to if I had to leave a month before and swim over.

I have an older brother who is 21 and attends UC Berkley.

People said, ‘You must be mad, or on drugs,’ which I found a bit disappointing. What about imagination? It reflects our time that people sooner assume you’re on drugs or mad, rather than free.

Being in love means seeing the Beloved all around me.

I saw opportunity appear in an ugly six-spindle shake machine ... and grabbed it.