“You’ll have to excuse Harry. He has what I call ‘chauffeured child syndrome.’ ” “He’s been driven all his life?” “That is correct. He has no drive of his own at all.”

“But he’s genuine twenty-first-century and only faking patience.”

“I meet the answering machine’s small, steady stare. “What do you do when God tells you no?” I ask. But it doesn’t answer me, so I undress for bed”

“Beliefs are what you know without choosing to. Just believe.”

“The whole island is spotted with derelict cottages and abandoned churches like this one. They sit in pastures as invisible to the Irish as a mother is to a teenage girl.”

“Tattooists are the new priests for the fucked-up and the thrown away. They speak the language of symbol, and administer penance in tiny metallic lashes.”

“God does not require us to give up anything that it is for our best interest to retain. In all that He does he has the well-being of his (own) in view. Would that all who have not chosen Christ might realize that he has something vastly better to offer them than they are seeking for themselves. Man is doing the greatest injury and injustice to his own soul when he thinks and acts contrary to the will of God. No real (and lasting) joy can be found in the path forbidden by Him who knows what is best and who plans for the good of his creatures. The path of transgression is the path of misery and destruction.”