Цитаты из книги The Speckled People : Memoir of a Half-Irish Childhood

...you know when something is true sometimes by the way nobody is boasting about it.

He said the universe was like a cardboard box with God sitting outside surrounded by light, but I wanted to know if maybe God was sitting inside another cardboard box with the light on, and how could anyone be sure how many cardboard boxes there are?

When you’re small you know nothing and when you grow up there are things you don’t want to know.

...stories that you have to write down are different to stories that you tell people out loud, because they’re harder to explain and you have to wait for the right moment.

...greatest poets were also greatest patriots.

Maybe your country is only a place you make up in your own mind. Something you dream about and sing about. Maybe it's not a place on the map at all, but just a story full of people you meet and places you visit, full of books and films you've been to. I'm not afraid of being homesick and having no language to live in. I don't have to be like anyone else. I'm walking on the wall and nobody can stop me

somebody asked her if the Irish still kept pigs under the bed, and she said it wasn’t half as bad as having the pigs in the bed like they do in England.

Irish people dance with their heads and speak with their feet.

...it’s the worst thing of all to be sad for yourself. You can help other people but often you can’t help yourself.

...Irish people knew how to deal with poverty, through celebration, with smoke and stories and singing. A man with a packet of cigarettes was a millionaire in Ireland.

...no matter what happens, you’re still free to go anywhere you like inside your own head. You can travel faster than the speed of light to any place you want in the universe...

... reading was the best kind of conversation you could have. With no secrets held back.