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John McGahern Biography

John McGahern (12 November 1934 – 30 March 2006) is regarded as one of the most important Irish writers of the latter half of the twentieth century.

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John McGahern Quotes

Everything that we inherit, the rain, the skies, the speech, and anybody who works in the English language in Ireland knows that there's the dead ghost of Gaelic in the language we use and listen to and that those things will reflect our Irish identity.

English, Identity, Knows, Rain, Skies, Sky

. . . with a rush of feeling he felt that this must be happiness. As soon as the thought came to him, he fought it back, blaming the whiskey. The very idea was as dangerous as presumptive speech: happiness could not be sought or worried into being, or even fully grasped; it should be allowed its own slow pace so that it passes unnoticed, if it ever comes at all.

Ideas, Feelings, Pace, Slow, Grasped, Idea

I think fiction is a very serious thing, that while it is fiction, it is also a revelation of truth, or facts.

Fiction, Revelation, Serious, Serious Things, Thinking, Writing

I think my mother was very spiritual.

Mother, Spiritual, Thinking, Think

I've never written anything that hasn't been in my mind for a long time - seven or eight years.

Eight, Years, Long, Written, Seven

My favorite optimist was an American who jumped off the Empire State Building, and as he passed the 42nd floor, the window washers heard him say, 'So Far, so good. '

Building, Empires, Heard, Optimist, Say, Window

My father was very outwardly religious.

Father, Outwardly, Religious

I belong to the middle class that grew up very influenced by the Catholic church. The people of the novel are from a more pagan and practical world in which the Christianity is just a veneer.

Catholic, Class, Grew, People, Practical

When I was in my 20s it did occur to me that there was something perverted about an attitude that thought that killing somebody was a minor offence compared to kissing somebody.

Attitude, Killing, Kissing, Offence

Yes, though I have nothing but gratitude for my upbringing in the church.

Gratitude, Church, Upbringing, Though, Nothing

I feel I grew up in a different century than I live in. I think most of them are changes for the good.

Thinking, Different, Grew Up, Think, Changes

Amongst Women concentrated on the family, and the new book concentrates on a small community. The dominant units in Irish society are the family and the locality. The idea was that the whole world would grow out from that small space.

Book, Dominant, Ideas, Irish, Space, Women

I'd much prefer to write more quickly.

Prefer, Quickly, Write, Writing

When I start to write, words have become physical presence. It was to see if I could bring that private world to life that found its first expression through reading. I really dislike the romantic notion of the artist.

Life, Reading, Romantic, Start, Write, Writing

Yes, but also one of the problems for a novelist in Ireland is the fact that there are no formal manners. I mean some people have beautiful manners but there's no kind of agreed form of manners.

Beautiful, Mean, People, Problems, Kind

The best of life is life lived quietly, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change is imperceptible and the precious life is everything.

Journey, Calm, Life Is, Nothing, Change, Happens

As a writer, I write to see. If I knew how it would end, I wouldn't write. It's a process of discovery.

Discovery, Ends, Process, Write, Writer, Writing

I read all the time. I was reading a book I admire very much by Alice McDermot called Charming Billy.

Alice, Book, Charming, Read, Reading

I love the description of Gothic churches before the printed word, that they were the bibles of the poor.

Church, Description, Gothic, Love, Printed, Printed Word

I suppose. . . in writing you can't have regrets. I mean, you just get it down the way it was. . . it's only wishful thinking that things could be other than they were.

Down, Mean, Regret, Things, Writing

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John McGahern Biography

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