Books Quote by John McGahern

“[on the Irish] A race of poets and wordsmiths, my ass.”

— M. Edward McNally

The Butcher Boy is a very great novel indeed and a very important Irish novel. The ambiguity of that is, he's writing a book…

— Stephen Rea

“I’ve always liked that Galway Kinnell poem. ‘Wait, for now. Distrust everything, if you have to. But trust the hours. Haven’t they carried you…

— Brittany Cavallaro

“He looks around at his guests. All are prepared. A Latin grace; English would be his choice, but he will suit his company. Who…

— Hilary Mantel

“I was beginning to understand how the Irish mentality worked. The more foolish, illogical or surreal one's actions were perceived t be (and mine…

— Tony Hawks

“I once tried hawking my own book around the pubs in the hope that, like the Salvation Army, I too could sell to the…

— Peter Finch

“The lively oral storytelling scene in Scots and Gaelic spills over into the majority English-speaking culture, imbuing it with a strong sense of narrative…

— Sara Sheridan

“Well, they may not be civilized, but they are certainly confident--and this confidence is one of the open-handed pleasures of early Irish literature.”

— Thomas Cahill

“Author relates the reaction of an Irish village to a landowner who tried to raise rents on the land's occupants. The villagers refused to…

— Patrick N. Allitt

“Irish improves a poet.”

— Sina Queyras

“John MacKechnie’s Gaelic Without Groans”

— Gladys Mitchell

“You shut out from your society the gentle and the good. You laugh at the simple and the pure. Living, as you all do,…

— Oscar Wilde