It was a sign of growing up, when the dark made no more difference to you than the day.

You know people are always putting Ulysses in the top 10 books ever written but I doubt that any of those people were really moved by it.

It was a sign of growing up, when the dark made no more difference to you than the day.

She's a pot-of-tea-before-I-say-boo-to-you woman. There's always a pile of warm teabags in the sink when I come down, like what a horse would leave behind.

When you grow up on an island, what matters is how you stand to the sea.

When I was a kid, if you didn't speak Irish, you really wanted to. And you played Gaelic games and you didn't pay any attention to what was happening in the outside world, because really, the - Ireland was the center of the universe. And I don't think that's the case anymore, although, admittedly, it is the center of the universe.

If there is a heaven, Jane Austen is sitting in a small room with Mother Teresa and Princess Diana, listening to Duran Duran, forever. If there's a hell, she's standing.