“Any assemblage comprising human beings, any family, any party, any tribe, any nation, will bind itself together not by what it shares but ultimately by what it fears, which is often so much greater. Perhaps it abhors the outsider as… — Joseph O'Connor Copy Share Image
It is not a matter of ends justifying means: but of the creation of new means and new ends. — Joseph O'Connor Copy Share Image
“The English possessed as many words for stealing as the Irish had for seaweed or guilt.” — Joseph O'Connor Copy Share Image
“That each man is the sum of his choices is nothing less than the truth. And each, perhaps, is also something else.” — Joseph O'Connor Copy Share Image
“...but as his father used to say when he had a few drinks taken, you couldn't expect bloody miracles when you were talking about… — Joseph O'Connor Copy Share Image
The most important thing I would learn in school was that almost everything I would learn in school would be utterly useless. When I was fifteen I knew the principal industries of the Ruhr Valley, the underlying causes of World War One and what Peig Sayers had for her dinner every day...What I wanted to know when I was fifteen… — Joseph O'Connor Copy Share
“They had far more in common than either realised. One was born Catholic, the other Protestant. One was born Irish, the other British. But… — Joseph O'Connor Copy Share Image
Dublin was turning into Disneyland with super-pubs, a Purgatory open till five in the morning. — Joseph O'Connor Copy Share Image
(The short story) is a form that has all the power of the novel - some would say more - but none of the… — Joseph O'Connor Copy Share Image
“And if ever you wanted to quit your impatient girl truly, and our little story had to be stored away in a room that's… — Joseph O'Connor Copy Share Image
I feel these days like a very large flamingo. No matter what way I turn, there is always a very large bill. — Joseph O'Connor Copy Share Image
