I wouldn't call my work Modernist. I would rust if I try to think about labels. I'd feel like the Tin Man in 'The Wizard of Oz.

Happy is what you realize you are a fraction of a second before it's too late.

Every great narrative is at least two narratives, if not more - the thing that is on the surface and then the things underneath which are invisible.

Books mean all possibilities. They mean moving out of yourself, losing yourself, dying of thirst and living to your full. They mean everything.

To be known so well by someone is an unimaginable gift. But to be imagined so well by someone is even better.

Oh. To be filled with goodness then shattered by goodness, so beautifully mosaically fragmented by such shocking goodness.

Stella Duffy is a writer who never lets you down.

Do you come to art to be comforted, or do you come to art to be re-skinned?

We'd never expect to understand a piece of music on one listen, but we tend to believe we've read a book after reading it just once.

Short stories consume you faster. They're connected to brevity. With the short story, you are up against mortality. I know how tough they are as a form, but they're also a total joy.

A good argument, like a good dialogue, is always a proof of life, but I'd much rather go and read a book.

Don’t allow people to come in and out of your life when it only benefits them.

The yearning for strong leadership is more about strength of purpose - clarity of vision - than about merely 'getting tough'.

I am the best there ever was!

Having been a cheerleader, I know all too well what these girls give up to join forces and compete.

Education should no longer be most imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities.

You have to understand how the human eye behaves when it views a scene for the first time. Work with that knowledge, and your paintings will have more drama and will evoke strong reactions.

There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe.

Emotions are the interaction of thoughts and of sensations in the body.

Turn off your mind, and focus on what you've got to do - task at hand.

I think women are sick and tired of being portrayed as victims, a lot of the time anyway, the bulk of their time on film.