I'm going to sound like an old man but at my age, it's lovely doing something that you've never done before.

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.

I see people in terms of dialogue and I believe that people are their talk.

Some of the people who look the most normal are probably the maddest people trying to look normal.

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.

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.

It's great meeting children because you never know what they will say.

Every honorable man is forced to yield to blackmail once or twice in his life, just for the sake of keeping peace in the community.

When we are kind to animals, they become loving and kind to us. It is our sacred duty to love the creator and the creations.

The memories that really matter don't live in the mind.

I like the idea of infiltrating an area that is not really exposed to me or my work.

I have proven people wrong so many times. I was told when I was younger there is no chance I will make the top 100, top 50, top 30. Every time I have proven them wrong. It's kind of nice.

Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living. My dad said, Booty - mmm mmm.

I am anxious to fix welfare. There has to be more training and child care.

The airplane has had a big impact on my life.

I am for Obama, all the way. I dont support Obama just because he is a black man; I support him because he is an educated black man. He is making black people proud.

I think every woman would want to do something about their cellulite!