“They'd listen silenty, with grave faces: but once they'd turn to each other they'd smile cruelly. He couldn't have it both ways.… — John McGahern Abuse Copy Share Image
“…But all life turns away from its own eventual hopelessness, leaving insomnia and its night to lovers and the dying.” — John McGahern Death Copy Share Image
Yes, but also one of the problems for a novelist in Ireland is the fact that there are no formal manners. I… — John McGahern Beautiful Copy Share Image
My favorite optimist was an American who jumped off the Empire State Building, and as he passed the 42nd floor, the window… — John McGahern Building Copy Share Image
The imagination demands that life be told slant because of its need of distance. — John McGahern Demand Copy Share Image
“When a long abuse of power is corrected, it is generally replaced by an opposite violence. In the new dispensation all that… — John McGahern Abuse of power Copy Share Image
But that private world, once it's dramatised, doesn't live again until it finds a reader. — John McGahern Again Copy Share Image
Yes, though I have nothing but gratitude for my upbringing in the church. — John McGahern Church Copy Share Image
“McGahern still lives on and works a farm in Leitrim, and friends say that even though he has held high profile academic… — John McGahern High profile Copy Share Image
Everything that we inherit, the rain, the skies, the speech, and anybody who works in the English language in Ireland knows that… — John McGahern Communication Copy Share Image
When I start to write, words have become physical presence. It was to see if I could bring that private world to… — John McGahern Art Copy Share Image
Without the book business it would be difficult or impossible for true books to find their true readers and without that solitary… — John McGahern Banquets Copy Share Image
I suppose . . . in writing you can't have regrets. I mean, you just get it down the way it was… — John McGahern Mean Copy Share Image
Amongst Women concentrated on the family, and the new book concentrates on a small community. The dominant units in Irish society are… — John McGahern Book Copy Share Image
“Dark, was banned by the Irish state censor for obscenity. The story was set, as so much of McGahern's later fiction would… — John McGahern Child abuse Copy Share Image
When you're in danger of losing a thing it becomes precious and when it's around us, it's in tedious abundance and we… — John McGahern Abundance Copy Share Image
The rosary was said every evening. I always liked that sentence about the medieval Churches, that they were the Bibles of the… — John McGahern Bible Copy Share Image
“There are no things more cruel than truths about ourselves spoken to us by another that are perceived to be at least… — John McGahern Truth Copy Share Image
I feel I grew up in a different century than I live in. I think most of them are changes for the… — John McGahern Century Copy Share Image
When I was in my 20s it did occur to me that there was something perverted about an attitude that thought that… — John McGahern Attitude Copy Share Image
I read all the time. I was reading a book I admire very much by Alice McDermot called Charming Billy. — John McGahern Admire Copy Share Image
“People are funny. They look down from all sorts of heights and then if the looking down has no effect they get… — john mcgahern Copy Share Image
“If it's well written, even an obscene book cannot be immoral. John McGahern, Galway, October 6th 2003. "Acclaimed as the most important… — John McGahern Books Copy Share Image
