I'm a writer, and what I do is write. I wasn't able to do anything else.

My life is every moment of my life. It is not a culmination of the past.

A thing well done is worth doing.

There is only one immutable law in life - in a gentleman's toilet, incoming traffic has the right of way.

Sometimes silence resolves a conversation confused by Mad Misconstruction.

Gossip is more popular than literature.

The problem with Ireland is that it's a country full of genius, but with absolutely no talent.

I feel like the writer observing the grief, but it is difficult to be detached from it.

Arnold Bennett was a writer I admired. He was actually taking notes at his father's deathbed.

An Irishman will always soften bad news, so that a major coronary is no more than 'a bad turn' and a near hurricane that leaves thousands homeless is 'good drying weather'.

In life there exist two classes: first class and no class.

If you're a goal scorer, you have to have a certain attitude. I'm very serious. My missus thinks I'm a bit weird. I'm cold, I don't have many emotions. It's very rare I cry.

We have the right as individuals to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.

If we had not winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

Children build self-esteem by doing things that are hard and learning what works.

What's normal is for things to work. What's not normal is for things to fail.

Golf is like a razor. You get just so sharp and then it begins to dull a little more the more you use it.

Whoever is gripped by God's spirit turns to his creation with all the interest that comes from God's love.

Those who give up cigarette smoking aren't the heroes. The real heroes are the rest of us - who have to listen to them.

If I decide to be an idiot, then I'll be an idiot on my own accord.

I want you," she said. "I told you so," he said.