... we have so many voices in us, how do we know which ones to obey?

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.

I have always felt that my work is religious, not sacrilegious.

The power of propaganda is to say something enough times that it becomes the Big Lie.

I don't know what I am going to play, so how can he know what I am going to play!

Usually in the first performances I'm completely panicked. And I pull myself together. By the time you get to the end of the play, you really start to have fun.

Women are, of course, more intelligent. Have you ever heard of a woman that would lose her head only because a man has pretty legs?

I don't consider myself a heartthrob in any way. I'm just pinching myself. I'm truly fortunate to be a part of this whole process.

I don't like to talk about work in progress, but the novel I'm working on now is definitely not horror.

The object of government is the welfare of the people.

When I tried to do something else, everyone behaved as if I was Gypsy Rose Lee trying to paint a Matisse.