“There'll be times when the only refuge is books. Then you'll read as if you meant it, as if your life depended on it.”

“Your life is in some bizarre state when priests are throwing abuse at you on the street.”

“The Local Paper here asked that me books be banned........THE HIGHEST PRAISE for an Irish writer.”

“I get through some print.”

“The whiskey kicked like a mugger.”

“What's the rush? Recognise that with the time at our disposal, there is only a limited number of good books you can read, a few really good movies worth seeing, and a finite number of hours, days, years to enjoy them!”

“Reading a book, and taking the time to ruminate and make inferences and engage the imaginational processing, is more cognitively enriching, without a doubt, than the short little bits that you might get if you're into the 30-second digital mode.”