Language, identity and forms of life are the terms in which political demands are shaped and voiced.

Capitalism will behave antisocially if it is profitable for it to do so, and that can now mean human devastation on an unimaginable scale. What used to be apocalyptic fantasy is today no more than sober realism.

Being brought up in a culture is a matter of learning appropriate forms of feeling as much as particular ways of thinking.

Genuine equality means not treating everyone the same, but attending equally to everyone’s different needs.

Irish fiction is full of secrets, guilty pasts, divided identities. It is no wonder that there is such a rich tradition of Gothic writing in a nation so haunted by history.

The past can be used to renew the present, not just to bury it.

People do evil things because they are evil. Some people are evil in the way that some things are coloured indigo. They commit their evil deeds not to achieve some goal, but just because of the sort of people they are.