It’s amazing how long we put up with things we detest for the sake of a quiet life.

The old are often forgotten. Life moves on without a care for those who wish to remain in the past. We tend to talk too much because it’s rare that we’re listened to.

The stars and planets don’t disappear just because it’s daytime.

Those who cling to life die and those who defy death live.

The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.

I have plenty of enemies... among artists who resent my earning a living. They think I should go off and starve while painting something 'significant.

... in Northern Ireland, if you don't have basic Christianity, rather than merely religion, all you get out of the experience of living is bitterness.

The heretic is always better dead. And mortal eyes cannot distinguish the saint from the heretic.

Art is not to do with the practical side of making a living. It's to live a fuller human life.

The books that are really valuable are the books that evoke a sense of place.

I think that everything should be a stepping stone for something bigger and better and if there is something bigger then why not go on after it?

There is no stopping place in this life--nor is there ever one for any person, no matter how far along the way one's gone.

When you're an actor, you're a slave to other people's visions.