Quotes from Eilís Dillon

If all the good food you have eaten in the last few years hasn't made a sensible man of you, you may as well go out and drown, for you're not worth feeding any more.

It's like this, ma'am, Michael is a fine big lad, used to a man's work and he has had a man's responsibility before now. Well, if he goes off and gets drowned, it will be because he was too silly to save himself. And if he's too silly to save himself, then it's worth no one else's while to save him, for he'll only live to get into some other trouble later on!

What a fine thing to be as rude as that with such convictions.

Mike wished Mr. Burden had chosen another time to be murdered. He was beginning to see that the hour of dressing for dinner might have been expressly designed for persons who need a quiet spell for the commission of crime.

I try not to look like a university man here....My fellow-guests think of a university degree as a disgraceful preliminary to the blood-sucking life of the bourgeoisie. A sign, moreover, that a man has to earn his own living.