Love and freedom are such hideous words. So many cruelties have been done in their name.

(The short story) is a form that has all the power of the novel - some would say more - but none of the self-importance.

There is nothing worse than the ambitions of a talentless person.

It is not a matter of ends justifying means: but of the creation of new means and new ends.

Dublin was turning into Disneyland with super-pubs, a Purgatory open till five in the morning.

Politics' the polite word for antediluvian prejudices, the rags put on by enmity and tribal resentment.

If you do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. If what you are doing is not working, do something else.