“Weel, ma´am' said Stephen, making the best of it, with a smile; 'when I ha´finished off, I mun quit this part, and try another. Fortnet or misfortnet, a man can but try; there´s now to be done wi´out tryin -cept laying down and dying.”

“Fortune or misfortune, a man can but try; there's not to be done without trying - accept laying down and dying.”

“History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”

“The story of my own childhood is a complicated sentence that I am always trying to finish, to finish and put behind me. It resists finishing, and partly this is because words are not enough; my early world was synaesthesic, and I am haunted by the ghosts of my own sense impressions, which re-emerge when I try to write, and shiver between the lines.”

“Why am I fighting to live,If I am just living to fight Why am I trying to see. When there aint nothing in sightWhy am I trying to give, When no one gives me a try Why am I dying to live,If I am just living to die?”

“I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can't be done. I deem that the very best time to make the effort.”