A short story is. . .frequently the celebration of character at bursting point.

It is often said that in Ireland there is an excess of genius unsustained by talent; but there is talent in the tongues.

The difference between farce and humour in literature is, I suppose, that farce strums louder and louder on one string, while humour varies its note, changes its key, grows and spreads and deepens until it may indeed reach tragic depths.

A touch of science, even bogus science, gives an edge to the superstitious tale.

The detective novel is the art-for-art's-sake of our yawning Philistinism, the classic example of a specialized form of art removed from contact with the life it pretends to build on.

The wrongs of childhood and upbringing have made a large and obsessional contribution to autobiography and the novel.

Criticism changes with the fashion of the time. A story is always a story.