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"Turn to gangsterism."
"Sebastian, I couldn't."
"Tone, pride has you at its mercy."
"Has me by the very ballocks."
"Tony, I think a pint would see us right."
"I think you're right for the first time since you last said that."

— J. P. Donleavy The Ginger Man (1955)

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More quotes by J. P. Donleavy

"Mr Dangerfield, why don't you believe in hell and things like that?"
"Hell is for poor people."

The Ginger Man (1955)

They say there is good in everyone. If you just give them a chance. And a good boot in the arse.

The Ginger Man (1955)

"I swim back to the shores of privilege out of the sea of the dispossessed."

The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B (1968)

In a big bowl full of hatred can you ever find a spoonful of love.

The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman (1977)

Reach up to put a hand to some dream you kept awake. Now you take it like a red ripe apple and polish quietly up and down one's sleeve.

The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B (1968)

All J. P. Donleavy quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: J. P. Donleavy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.