To walk into history is to be free at once, to be at large among people.

I became, and remain, my characters' close and intent watcher: their director, never. Their creator I cannot feel that I was, or am.

...though one can be callous in Ireland one cannot be wholly opaque or material. An unearthly disturbance works in the spirit; reason can never reconcile one to life; nothing allays the wants one cannot explain.

one should discuss one's difficulties only when they are over.

Not only is there no question of solitude, but in the long run we may not choose our company.

Exhibitionism and a nervous wish for concealment, for anonymity, thus battle inside the buyer of any piece of clothing.

The short story is at an advantage over the novel, and can claim its nearer kinship to poetry, because it must be more concentrated, can be more visionary, and is not weighed down (as the novel is bound to be) by facts, explanation, or analysis. I do not mean to say that the short story is by any means exempt from the laws of narrative: it must observe them, but on its own terms.