If you look at life one way, there is always cause for alarm.

Language is a mixture of statement and evocation.

Jealousy is no more than feeling alone against smiling enemies.

It is not helpful to help a friend by putting coins in his pockets when he has got holes in his pockets.

Ireland is a great country to die or be married in.

Autumn arrives in early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day.

Intimacies between women often go backwards, beginning in revelations and ending in small talk.

Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that we live, if we do.

Mechanical difficulties with language are the outcome of internal difficulties with thought.

If a theme or idea is too near the surface, the novel becomes simply a tract illustrating an idea.

I think the main thing, don't you, is to keep the show on the road.

Education is not so important as people think.

Meeting people unlike oneself does not enlarge one's outlook; it only confirms one's idea that one is unique.

Art is one thing that can go on mattering once it has stopped hurting.

All your youth you want to have your greatness taken for granted; when you find it taken for granted, you are unnerved.