55 quotes
In a Portstewart guest house her father liked to play tricks when he had eaten his egg. He would put the shell upside down in someone else's eggcup. The McKennas would sit and watch the next person lift a spoon and cave in the top of the hollow egg.
Grace Notes (1997)
"There's not much money - if that's what you mean."
"Approximately."
"Once all the debts are paid there will be very little."
"Nevertheless. Every little helps. The Brothers are sorely in need of it this weather."
Lamb (1980)
"If you have a war on your hands you send for the Mr Crillys of this world. The hard men and the bandits are the real revolutionaries, if you see what I mean. They get things done, they punch the hole for us to get through later."
Cal (1983)
Look, see, behold. Above all, listen.
Midwinter Break (2017)
The island kids had TV, radio. Their remote surroundings were seen as a deprivation, not something to be enjoyed. They felt cut off from the mainstream. To be on an island was a source of discontent, not as good as the mainland.
Grace Notes (1997)
She smiled to prove everything was all right. It was an odd device, this rearrangement of muscles of the face which said everything is all right. No need to enquire within. It could be used as a barrier to fend off emotional intruders.
Grace Notes (1997)
A thing that really took his breath away was Norman Foster's roof over the Great Court at the British Museum - the audacity and brilliance of it. The approach inside the building from a periphery of darkness into the thrilling light at its centre - the largest covered square in Europe - was utterly wonderful.
Midwinter Break (2017)
"What I like about cats is the way they ignore you. There's no telling what way they feel. If I want to be popular all I have to do is rattle the tin opener and he's all over me, purring and sharpening his back on my shins."
"What about you?"
"I would like to see a united Ireland, but I haven't decided the best way to go about it yet."
"I feel sorry for it."
"What?"
"Ireland. It's like a child. It's only concerned with the past and the present. The future has ceased to exist for it."
Cal (1983)
Suddenly a police Land Rover with its hee-haw siren blaring swung into the main road behind them with a squeal of tyres. It roared along and overtook them so fast its body tilted at an angle to the chassis.
Someone said, "Jesus, they'll sell no ice cream going at that speed."
Cal (1983)
Short story, "The break", p.20
The Great Profundo and Other Stories (1987)
He continued talking. "When you find out about real education you can never leave it alone. I don't mean A-levels and things like that - you are just proving something to yourself with them - but books, ideas, feelings. Everything to do with up here." He tapped his temple. "And here." He tapped the middle of his chest.
The Great Profundo and Other Stories (1987)
INTERVIEWER: (After an awkward silence) And how do you see the future?
PROFUNDO: I wait for it to come and then look at it (laughs).
The Great Profundo and Other Stories (1987)
"Once you've been through a tragedy you're scared of it ever after," Mrs Morton said.
Cal (1983)
The coffee was good and the first sip made him want a cigarette. His hand went to his pocket before he realised it was decades since he'd had a smoke. The desire came out of nowhere. He thought how foolish, how stuck in routine the body becomes. Would the same thing happen if he tried to give up drinking?
Midwinter Break (2017)