Freud was just a novelist.

Murderers will try to recall the sequence of events, they will remember exactly what they did just before and just after. But they can never remember the actual moment of killing. This is why they will always leave a clue.

My great fear has always been complete and utter failure. Hence, you see, all the dispossessed people in my fiction, and why I try to earn as much money as I can. It's a defense. I don't enjoy it or do anything with it.

I strike up conversations all the time and it is very interesting, finding out about things I know nothing about.

There are certain people who seem doomed to buy certain houses. The house expects them. It waits for them.

What captivity has been to the Jews, exile has been to the Irish. For us, the romance of our native land begins only after we have left home; it is really only with other people that we become Irishmen.

As a Londoner I was able to see how the world of power and money cast its shadow on those who failed.