I do not plan my fiction any more than I normally plan woodland walks; I follow the path that seems most promising at any given point, not some itinerary decided before entry.

The practise of an art is essential to the whole man, not because of what art is but because of what art does to the artist.

He knew the world and its absurdities as only an intelligent Irishman can; which is to say that where his knowledge or memory failed him, his imagination was always ready to fill the gap.

Greece is like a mirror. It makes you suffer. Then you learn.' To live alone?' To live. With what you are.

Our knowledge of what the richer than ourselves possess, and the poor do not, has never been more widespread. Therefore, envy, which is wanting what others have, and jealousy, which is not wanting others to have what one has, have never been more widespread.

Art is a statement of one in the face of all; not a statement by one for the use of all.

Duty is but a pot. It holds whatever is put in it, from the greatest evil to the greatest good.