There was always a real reason for everything - why spoons tarnished, and jam furred, and people declined into God, or drink, or card games.

Irish? In truth I would not want to be anything else. It is a state of mind as well as an actual country. It is being at odds withother nationalities, having quite different philosophy about pleasure, about punishment, about life, and about death. At least it does not leave one pusillanimous.

I was lonelier than I should be, for a woman in love, or half in love.

If the Holy Communion touched my teeth, I thought that was a mortal sin

History is said to be written by the victors. Fiction, by contrast, is largely the work of injured bystanders.

After that dark woman you search for someone who will fit into the irregular corners of your heart.

I am not kind, I cut people off as with shears and I drop them like nettles.