I mean I think that's a fact and I think that we had a very peculiar type of Catholic Church here in that it was a fortress Church.

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.

Many crumble and forget their morals when presented with their pieces of silver. Standing up for what you believe has real dignity too.

The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our imagination.

I may not be a king or a queen, but I'll be damned if I'm not treated like royalty.

The attempt to regulate, control, and prescribe all manner of conduct and social relations is very old. It was always the practice of primitive peoples.

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

I find the name of Jesus Christ written on the top of every page of modern history.

Sometimes you're fooled quickly. You want to be fooled. If you can't trust your first impression you're going to have a harder time than you should.

What consumerism really is, at its worst is getting people to buy things that don't actually improve their lives.

Survival instincts are one of those things that never die.

The secret of fortune is joy in our hands.