Darkness is drawn to light, but light does not know it; light must absorb the darkness and therefore meet its own extinguishment.

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.

We only have to dance to the rhythm of life.

Be yourself, be who you can be.

I see you finally got a number to match your IQ.

God's work is freedom. Freedom is dear to his heart. He wishes to make man's will free, and at the same time wishes it to be pure, majestic, and holy.

If you want love and abundance in your life, give it away.

Those of us lucky enough to have a share of privilege in the more free societies should not be asking this question, but doing something to answer it.

The biggest risk with a series that goes on this long is that you'll get bored with the character.

The Eastern monarch who proclaimed a reward to him who should discover a new pleasure, would have deserved well of mankind had he stipulated that it should be blameless.

Age looks with anger on the temerity of youth, and youth with contempt on the scrupulosity of age.

Change your habitual questions and change your destiny!