Ireland is a peculiar society in the sense that it was a nineteenth century society up to about 1970 and then it almost bypassed the twentieth century.

My favorite optimist was an American who jumped off the Empire State Building, and as he passed the 42nd floor, the window washers heard him say, 'So Far, so good.'

When I was in my 20s it did occur to me that there was something perverted about an attitude that thought that killing somebody was a minor offence compared to kissing somebody.

We absolutely believed in Heaven and Hell, Purgatory, and even Limbo. I mean, they were actually closer to us than Australia or Canada, that they were real places.

I belong to the middle class that grew up very influenced by the Catholic church. The people of the novel are from a more pagan and practical world in which the Christianity is just a veneer.

The best of life is life lived quietly, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change is imperceptible and the precious life is everything.

When you're in danger of losing a thing it becomes precious and when it's around us, it's in tedious abundance and we take it for granted as if we're going to live forever, which we're not.

I read all the time. I was reading a book I admire very much by Alice McDermot called Charming Billy.

I love the description of Gothic churches before the printed word, that they were the bibles of the poor.

Yes, but also one of the problems for a novelist in Ireland is the fact that there are no formal manners. I mean some people have beautiful manners but there's no kind of agreed form of manners.

The way I see it is that all the ol' guff about being Irish is a kind of nonsense. I mean, I couldn't be anything else no matter what I tried to be. I couldn't be Chinese or Japanese.

I suppose you cannot hold on to old things just for the sake of holding on.

Do you love me, Rain?""More than I knew it was possible to love. All the stars will fall from the heavens before I ever stop.

...every god serves a purpose and every faith fills a need.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

She [Hillary Clinton] exudes leadership, confidence and - importantly - empathy, compassion, and understanding.

True, I am in love with suffering, but I do not know if I deserve the honor.

I'm a child of the '60s, so I love the fact that we are returning to a time when artists are standing up.

I grew up always wanting to act, always knowing that's what I wanted to do.

The power of nature exists in its silence. Human words cannot encode the meaning because human language has access only to the shadow of meaning.

My aim is to show that those governments that violate the rights of people by invoking the name of Islam have been misusing Islam.