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.

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

When I was in my 20s it did occur to me that there was something perverted about an attitude that thought that killing somebody was a minor offence compared to kissing somebody.

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 read all the time. I was reading a book I admire very much by Alice McDermot called Charming Billy.

The way I see it is that all the ol' guff about being Irish is a kind of nonsense. I mean, I couldn't be anything else no matter what I tried to be. I couldn't be Chinese or Japanese.

My favorite optimist was an American who jumped off the Empire State Building, and as he passed the 42nd floor, the window washers heard him say, 'So Far, so good.'