It is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

Even if I did speak Irish, I’d always be considered an outsider here, wouldn’t I? I may learn the password but the language of the tribe will always elude me, won’t it? The private core will always be ...hermetic, won’t it?

To remember everything is a form of madness.

It is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

People with a culture of poverty suffer much less from repression than we of the middle class suffer and indeed, if I may make the suggestion with due qualification, they often have a hell of a lot more fun than we have.

Confusion is not an ignoble condition

The Troubles are a pigmentation in our lives here, a constant irritation that detracts from real life. But life has to do with something else as well, and it's the other things which are the more permanent and real.