As writers and readers, as sinners and citizens, our realism and our aesthetic sense make us wary of crediting the positive note.

I suppose I did feel a certain public pressure always.

The whole relationship between a writer's spiritual/emotional condition and the kind of wordstuff and form-making that's going on in his work is an interesting one. When I was an undergraduate, there was a glib notion around that there was no reason to suppose a bad man could be a good writer.

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center.

History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave, But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme

The dotted line my father's ashplant made On Sandymount Strand Is something else the tide won't wash away.

There is risk and truth to yourselves and the world before you.