Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work.

My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the centre of paralysis.

if it is thus, I ask emphatically whence comes this thusness.

Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.

The sacred pint alone can unbind the tongue.

I hear the ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppled masonry, and time one livid final flame.

Drugs age you after mental excitement. Lethargy then. Why? Reaction. A lifetime in a night. Gradually changes your character.