The Irish are great for their tunes, but all their lovesongs are sad and their warsongs happy.

There are no days more full than those we go back to.

We have to admire the world for not ending on us.

Let this be a lesson to us all, said the preacher. You will be walking someday in the dark and the truth will come shining through, and behind you will be a life that you never want to see again.

One of those out-of-the-ordinary days that made sense of the slew of ordinary days. New York had a way of doing that. Every now and then the city shook its soul out. It assailed you with an image, or a day, or a crime, or a terror, or a beauty so difficult to wrap your mind around that you had to shake your head in disbelief.

Anakana Schofield is part of a new wave of wonderful Irish fiction-international in scope and electrically alive.

He said to me once that most of the time people use the word love as just another way to show off they're hungry. The way he said it went something like: Glorify their appetites.