You feel a sense of urgency, especially at my advanced age, when you're staring into the grave.

There’s no use saying anything in the schoolyard because there’s always someone with an answer and there’s nothing you can do but punch them in the nose and if you were to punch everyone who has an answer you’d be punching morning noon and night.

Happiness is hard to recall. Its just a glow.

I appealed to my mother. I told her it wasn't fair the way the whole family was invading my dreams and she said, Arrah, for the love o' God, drink your tea and go to school and stop tormenting us with your dreams.

I've been writing in notebooks for 40 years or so.

I'm not one of those James Joyce intellectuals who can stand back and look at the whole edifice... It was a slow process for me to just crawl out of it, like a snake leaving his skin behind.

They can afford to smile because they all have teeth so dazzling if they dropped them in the snow they'd be lost forever.