I feel I grew up in a different century than I live in. I think most of them are changes for the good.

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.

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.

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.

Just believe in it and do it! Do not ask people for advice. They are going to tell you no. That’s the problem. Asking for advice all day long is great but taking action is more important.

I see the good in the world because I choose to. I don't imagine that it's there

To hell with you all, I DO believe

I used to take on trust a man's deeds after having listened to his words. Now having listened to a man's words I go on to observe his deeds.

My ideas about vampires may by romantic, but your attitudes toward women need a major overhaul.

The evolution from happiness to habit is one of death's best weapons.

I have been here before in my head. To everyone else, it is my first Olympics. To me, it's my thousandth.

I don't want to record anything unless it can be great and genuinely interesting.

It seems to me morally a decent society will try to take some of the increased benefit and use that to alleviate the pain of the few who are bearing the cost that made it possible.

Your purpose in life is to use your gifts and talents to help other people. Your journey in life teaches you how to do that.