Action isn’t my forte. I’m an expert on contemplation and mild regret.
Selfishness and self-absorption are deadly charm-exterminators.
I hated school. . . . One of the reasons was a learning disability, dyslexia, which no one understood at the time. I still can't spell. . .
In silence - and in self-defense - I figured things out in my own little way.
I've learned that getting what you want gives you a pretty high batting average, and leaves you plenty to struggle for.
No one is ever too old, too rich, too poor, to pray.
I was a very wanting child.
I always tell myself, when I remember the non-stop self-generated hell party that used to be my life, I wouldn't be here if I didn't go there.
Through all this horror my cat stalked unperturbed. Once I saw him monstrously perched atop a mountain of bones, and wondered at the secrets that might lie behind his yellow eyes.
For over 30 years, the IRA showed that the British government could not rule Ireland on its own terms.
The first thing you have to understand is that I was not desperate to be a writer. I was never a closet writer filing away notes in a cupboard.