Quotes from Frank Delaney

Storytelling, in print or speech, needs vital energy.

I believe the world of the spirit is in general greatly neglected and not at all served by the practice of faith as we know it, because religion isn't individual enough.

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

If you ever want to understand multitasking in prose, James Joyce is your man.

Writers have opinions - that, in part, is why they write. Therefore they have strong likes and dislikes.

As an arts journalist in London, working mainly for the BBC, I interviewed hundreds if not thousands of authors. From them I gleaned a great deal of passing instruction in writing and I observed one fascinating detail: no two writers approach their work - physically - in the same way.

There are some places you love with your heart, and there are some places that you love with your mind- the places that you love with both are called 'libraries'

James left us, taking his great, informed soul with him.

Draped across an armchair lay his famous long black coat, empty now, and hollow with missing him.

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

Getting up, going to bed, preparing food, eating food--we futile creatures must struggle all the time. Nothing that we need comes to us; we must reach for everything.

that's the story of how Saint Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland forever and banished the Devil to England. Some people say that explains why there has always been such trouble between England and Ireland. The Devil stirs it up.

What's the odd one out between an egg, a drum, and a potato?' Ronan shook his head, mystified. 'You can beat an egg. You can beat a drum. But you can't beat a potato. D'you get it, do you?

habit of speaking in paragraphs.

We had so many of those meaningless banter phrases, those icebreakers... they were meaningless-but without malice of harm, and they helped awkward people get over their embarrassment at being alive.

definition of remorse: a mourning that is out of control and never ends, that can strike out of the bluest of skies, across the softest of snows.

There's always good news wrapped up in bad news.

My mother used to say, "Fun is fun till someone loses an eye.

I suppose if you've always been wrapped in wool, you don't know it's wool.

A gust of wind snatched at her hat. She jumped from the wall and her skirts blew everywhere. I couldn't avoid glimpsing more than she intended, and I feared that she might have been embarrassed. Instead she laughed and said, "You're seeing my true colors," and I was the one who blushed.

What are you like inside? Don't you have feelings where you love everyone, and at the same time you hate everyone? Or—don't you have times when everything goes the way you want, but nothing feels good or right? That's what I mean," he'd say, "about my black horse and my white horse.

Patrick had left behind some writings, and one of his most famous works was something many of us learned in school called "Saint Patrick's Breastplate," a kind of a cross between a hymn and a poem.

Tonight, I'm certainly going to tell you a story, but 'tis a story with a difference because, unlike virtually every other tale I tell-in this case, I was there. And yet I know that although I was there, and I saw people who were real, they have since become somewhat imagined-because I now view them through my memory. That's something every human being does-but storytellers live by it.

I've just had very bad news." "What's the good news inside it? There's always good news wrapped up in bad news." "Jesus God, I don't know." "But there is." "That's ludicrously optimistic." Lelia said, "You'll have to use smaller words, you're in Clare now." Ronan