I have always felt a special affinity with V. S. Pritchett. He worked from the ear, primarily, as I do, and he was an all-rounder, writing short stories, novels, memoir, travelogue, critical biography. He lived to be almost 100, and… — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
At one point I would read nothing that was not by the great American Jews - Saul Bellow, Philip Roth - which had a disastrous effect of making me think I needed to write the next great Jewish American novel.… — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
Frazzled and delirious, as I've just finished a new book of stories. I feel like Moses staggering down the mountainside with the tablets of… — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
Libraries are where we learn that we can live our lives through books. — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
I think the language as spoken in Limerick and Cork has not really been written; 'City of Bohane' is a combination of the two.… — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
It is nothing, to give one’s life for Ireland. I’m not the first and maybe I won’t be the last. What’s my life compared… — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
I go into my workroom seven mornings a week. There will only be one or two mornings a week where it seems to be… — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
I was a cub reporter on a local newspaper in Limerick city, and I used to cover the district court meetings. All of life… — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
The fundamental human truth underpinning 'Ox Mountain Death Song' is that men so very often turn into their fathers. The way that everything gets… — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
I think journalism is useful training for a writer in the way it takes the preciousness out of the pragmatic side of the craft. — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
“And the view was suddenly clear to me. The world opened out to its grim beyonds and I realized that, at forty, one must… — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
The short story is a very natural mode of storytelling; most stories can be told quickly. I always think of them as like a… — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
I don't quite operate within the realist mode. I kind of push the stories out towards the cusp of believability - that's the area… — Kevin Barry Copy Share Image
