My mother was passionate. She was stubborn, the dominant one in the family. She dominated my father.

I went through life like an idiot for a great deal of the time, saying there's nothing I would change. That was a very arrogant thing to say. There's a lot I would change. There are people I would have steered clear of.

In life there exist two classes: first class and no class.

Arnold Bennett was a writer I admired. He was actually taking notes at his father's deathbed.

A thing well done is worth doing.

An Irishman will always soften bad news, so that a major coronary is no more than 'a bad turn' and a near hurricane that leaves thousands homeless is 'good drying weather'.

My life is every moment of my life. It is not a culmination of the past.