There was always a real reason for everything - why spoons tarnished, and jam furred, and people declined into God, or drink, or card games.

It is increasingly clear that the fate of the universe will come to depend more and more on individuals as the bungling of bureaucracy permeates every corner of our existence.

History is said to be written by the victors. Fiction, by contrast, is largely the work of injured bystanders.

When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.

The vote means nothing to women. We should be armed.

Ordinary life bypassed me, but I also bypassed it. It couldn't have been any other way.Conventional life and conventional people are not for me.

Writing is like carrying a fetus.

never forget this moment, the hum of the bee, the saffron threads of the flower, the drawn blinds, nature's assiduousness and human cruelty.

... a country encapsulates our childhood and those lanes, byres, fields, flowers, insects, suns, moons and stars are forever reoccurring.

Promiscuity is the death of love.

I'm an Irish Catholic and I have a long iceberg of guilt.

On the way, see the beauty, find the love, and express the kindness.

No matter what, make an effort to react positively to each event.

It's going to be okay. Donny doesn't know it yet, but he just picked a fight with the wrong bunch of guys." -- Julian Darcangelo

I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than fatally disappointed.

I think when you love music, you love a lot of it. Now when it comes to jazz, it's very much in the hyperions of height. You go exploring every night.

I told her the world was full of nice people. I'd have hated to try to prove it to her, but I said it, anyway.

The excitement of anticipation was *almost* equal to the thrill of lovemaking.

I called my business manager in California and said, 'Sell all of my stock' - what little of it I had - and it's the only smart financial move I ever made.

States are not moral agents.

Garth, marriage is punishment for shoplifting in some countries!