Quotes from Roddy Doyle

I'd become a bully. The something Ã¢â'¬â€œ the resolve Ã¢â'¬â€œ that had let me send in those first pieces, put them in the envelope and post them; that resolve Ã¢â'¬â€œ it was something like that Ã¢â'¬â€œ or ambition; whatever it was, it was gone. Ambition was a decision, not a trait. There were no more decisions. I couldn't think of anything that I could do.

They ran. They stayed warmer that way and running seemed to be the right way to measure their love for Uncle Ben. They wanted to hear their breath, and their feet stamping the ground. They wanted to feel their lungs working, and their hearts.

It would be okay to laugh one minute, then someone would be bent over, holding his arm where Tom Jones had thumped him. I'd watch tears drop on the wooden floor and I'd love Tom Jones because they weren't my tears.

Gloria screamed, but nothing came out. She could feel the scream in her throat, but it was clinging there, too scared to climb out of her mouth. Raymond might have screamed, too--he wasn't sure. His face was an exploding red ball--that was what it felt like. His heart was in the middle of his head. He couldn't see a thing.

The worst was when there was nothing in the sky, nothing to grab, blue blue blue.

I was going. I couldn't stay here. Every breath of its stale air, every square inch of the place mocked me, grabbed at my ankles. It needed blood to survive and it wasn't going to get mine.

She wanted this too. She wanted me to watch her. She wanted me to follow her. She wanted to feel my eyes. She wanted to lift me out of death.

If you just watch and listen you'll get better answers.

said. I laughed. I know now: I didn't laugh much until I met Rachel. It's corny but true. I only laughed when other people were laughing. But now I started laughing. I started laughing, and she joined me. She stopped outside the Unitarian Church.

It was the secrecy I hated. but. Like we were ashamed. Cos we weren't - not really. It was like we were breakin' the law, an' I'm not even sure we were. Just cause we loved our child. - But it worked out okay, yeah? - Yeah, but it was wrong smuggling her o' the country. - You'll be voting yes, so? - I'll be waitin' for the fucking doors to open.

If you were going to be best friends with anyone – Kevin – you had to hate a lot of other people, the two of you, together. It made you better friends.

Things you make up bleed into things tha' definitely happened. Like describin' an event, an actual occasion. You add to it, you take things out. You forget exact details. I don't think it's dishonest.

Girls walk into a room. The boys sit up. Women in their late forties walk into a room. Men in their fifties sit up, straighten their backs, pull down the fronts of their hoodies. It made me want to cry. I felt I was going right back into the life I'd missed.

We don't take it too seriously, said Harry. —What? —The golf. —To avoid the disappointment, said Liam.—The same with everything. That's what it's all about now, isn't it? From here on in. Avoiding disappointment.

But it wasn't boring like this; I loved it, sitting there doing nothing. There wasn't even anything to look at except the houses across the road.

Ulysses could have done with a good editor. You know people are always putting Ulysses in the top 10 books ever written but I doubt that any of those people were really moved by it.

The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.

I had to make sure I kept an eye on the real world.

Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's a valid part of any endeavour, not just writing.

The baby bounced gently off the wall of her uterus. She opened her dressing gown and put her hands back on her belly. It moved again, like a dolphin going through the water; that was the way she imagined it.

No matter how close to personal experience a story might be, inevitably you are going to get to a part that isn't yours and, actually, whether it happened or not becomes irrelevant. It is all about choosing the right words.

When I started writing full time I had not long stopped being a teacher and when at last I had a full day to write, I would put music on and wonder to myself - am I allowed to do this? Then I thought: 'I am control of this and no one is telling me what I can do.'

One day at a time, sweet Jesus. Whoever wrote that one hadn't a clue. A day is a fuckin' eternity

If there is a heaven, Jane Austen is sitting in a small room with Mother Teresa and Princess Diana, listening to Duran Duran, forever. If there's a hell, she's standing.