The moon hung over the planet Earth, a dead thing over a dying thing.

It is only when our characters and events begin to disobey us that they begin to live.

The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed.' 'I suppose one could say that Hitler didn't betray his self.' He turned. 'You are right. He did not. But millions of Germans did betray their selves. That was the tragedy.'

To despise all effort is the greatest effort of all.

There are two kinds of hangover: in one you feel ill and incapable, in the other you feel ill and lucid.

You put up with your voice and speak with it because you haven't any choice. But it's what you say that counts.

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.