The telephone ringing gave me a dreadful start. I have never got used to this machine, the way it crouches so malevolently, ready to start clamouring for attention when you least expect it, like a mad baby.
John BanvilleA man is not much if he can't depend on himself, and nothing if others can't depend on him.
John Banville...being alone with him was like being in a room which someone had just violently left
John BanvilleArt is amoral, whether we accept this or not; it does not take sides. The finest fictions are cold at heart.
John BanvilleHe knows that after him everything will continue on much as before, except that there will be a minuscule absence, a barely detective gap in the so-called grand scheme, one unit fewer now. Or not even that, not even an empty space where he once was, for all will rush immediately to fill that vacuum. Pft. Gone. Recollections of him will remain in the minds of others for a while, but presently those others too will die and his few relics with them. And then all will be dark.
John Banville