Pity the selfishness of lovers: it is brief, a forlorn hope; it is impossible.
memory is to love what the saucer is to the cup.
Sport and death are the two great socializing factors in Ireland.
Language is a mixture of statement and evocation.
Childish fantasy, like the sheath over the bud, not only protects but curbs the terrible budding spirit, protects not only innocence from the world, but the world from the power of innocence.
Short of a small range of physical acts-a fight, murder, lovemaking-dialogue is the most vigorous and visible inter-action of which characters in a novel are capable. Speech is what characters do to each other.