 As somebody once said, we're not punished for our sins, we're punished by them. |
| It's a natural thing for people to say, you know, Who's in this book? I find myself get ting a little defensive. People come along and I'm waiting for that first question. |
| I'm a writer, and what I do is write. I wasn't able to do anything else. |
| I've always enjoyed a woman's company more than men's. They're usually better looking. |
| My mother was passionate. She was stubborn, the dominant one in the family. She dominated my father. |
| A thing well done is worth doing. |
| We were married for almost 45 years. We fought all the time, it wasn't a great love or anything, it wasn't a great, all-consuming passion. She was just there. A lot of people were startled because we didn't seem devoted but we were. |
| We are all the foolishness and all the crimes we did. We're also all the kindnesses we did. I hate to think of life as if we understood time. We don't understand time. |
| I feel like the writer observing the grief, but it is difficult to be detached from it. |
| My life is every moment of my life. It is not a culmination of the past. |
| Gossip is more popular than literature. |
| I went through life like an idiot for a great deal of the time, saying there's nothing I would change. That was a very arrogant thing to say. There's a lot I would change. There are people I would have steered clear of. |
| Arnold Bennett was a writer I admired. He was actually taking notes at his father's deathbed. |
| I don't think anyone is the perfect one to play me. |
| The problem with Ireland is that it's a country full of genius, but with absolutely no talent. |
| I've always believed in survival. |
| My father I liked, but it was only after his death that I got to know him by writing the play. |
| I think with every writer there are two people there. |
| I'm a much nicer person since my wife died. I found out what pain is, so on that level I'm much nicer. |
| I came down to the living room one day and my wife was standing in the living room. It wasn't an illusion. I saw her out of the corner of my eye. The moment I saw her, she vanished. |
