"Love . . . is like nature, but in reverse; first it fruits, then it flowers, then it seems to wither, then it goes deep, deep down into its burrow, where no one sees it, where it is lost from sight, a..."
- Edna O'Brien
"Writers are always anxious, always on the run--from the telephone, from responsibilities, from the distractions of the world."
"It is impossible to capture the essence of love in writing, only its symptoms remain, the erotic absorption, the huge disparity between the times together and the times apart, the sense of being exclu..."
"That is the mystery about writing: it comes out of afflictions, out of the gouged times, when the heart is cut open."
"My friends I tell you this, we are a jolly group but put us in uniform and all that change. In war I don’t know who my brother. In war I don’t know who my friend. War make everybody savage. Who can sa..."
"Darkness is drawn to light, but light does not know it; light must absorb the darkness and therefore meet its own extinguishment."
"The words ran away with me."
"I was lonelier than I should be, for a woman in love, or half in love."
"When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious."
"If the Holy Communion touched my teeth, I thought that was a mortal sin"