To claim that music is more important than oxygen would be trite and sentimental. It would also be true.

She'd tried her hand at most things, but drew the line at honesty.

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

I'm going to sound like an old man but at my age, it's lovely doing something that you've never done before.

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.

I'm not recognised that much. I'm just a bald man in glasses and there's a rash of them in Dublin. It'd be different if I had a mohican.

Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's part of any endeavour, not just writing.