I feel I grew up in a different century than I live in. I think most of them are changes for the good.

I mean I think that's a fact and I think that we had a very peculiar type of Catholic Church here in that it was a fortress Church.

I used to take five or six books away and bring five or six books back. Nobody gave me direction or advice and I read much in the way that a boy might watch television.

Amongst Women concentrated on the family, and the new book concentrates on a small community. The dominant units in Irish society are the family and the locality. The idea was that the whole world would grow out from that small space.

When you're in danger of losing a thing it becomes precious and when it's around us, it's in tedious abundance and we take it for granted as if we're going to live forever, which we're not.

I feel I grew up in a different century than I live in. I think most of them are changes for the good.

As a writer, I write to see. If I knew how it would end, I wouldn't write. It's a process of discovery.