Countries are either mothers or fathers, and engender the emotional bristle secretly reserved for either sire.

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.

Without the voice of reason, every faith is its own c

We want to get to the point that using Uber is cheaper than owning a car.

There is a heel that is too high to walk in, certainly. But who cares? You don't have to walk in high heels.

If I can get a sanitized version of reality, I'll take it.

It's no fun watching you disintegrate. Where is the old "I Love Myself" mantra? You need to feel you are indeed lovable and that your life matters. Listen. The birds are singing your name.

I really wanted to focus on my songwriting, or songwriting with other people. I wanted to go learn from other people who were really good at the classic, more traditional idea of songwriting.

There are two sure ways to lose a friend, one is to borrow, the other to lend.

Listen, just do what you think is right, and we'll support it." ~ Sticky Washington, The Prisoner's Dilemma

The jostling of young minds against each other has this wonderful attribute, that one can never foresee the spark, nor predict the flash. What will spring up in a moment? Nobody knows.

Popularity is exhausting. The life of the party almost always winds up in a corner with an overcoat over him.