It is funny, but it strikes me that a person without anecdotes that they nurse while they live, and that survive them, are more likely to be utterly lost not only to history but the family following them. Of course this is the fate of most souls, reducing entire lives, no matter how vivid and wonderful, to those sad black names on withering family trees, with half a date dangling after and a question mark.
Sebastian BarryI am old enough to know that time passing is just a trick, a convenience. Everything is always there, still unfolding, still happening. The past, the present, and the future, in the noggin eternally, like brushes, combs and ribbons in a handbag.
Sebastian BarryI haven't really written my plays and books - I've heard them. The stories are there already, singing in your genes and in your blood.
Sebastian BarryIt is always worth itemising happiness, there is so much of the other thing in a life, you had better put down the markers for happiness while you can.
Sebastian BarryA beard on a man is only a way of hiding something, his face of course, but also the inner matters, like a hedge around a secret garden, or a cover over a bird cage.
Sebastian Barry