Joseph O'Neill
Joseph O'Neill
books details dublin extract good hope interested james presence specific ten time voice writers
When I read James Joyce, I'm not really interested in the Dublin of 1904. I'm interested in being in the presence of a voice and a sensibility underpinned by an authenticity which, I think, if you're a good writer, you can extract from the specific details of your own time. I think most writers do hope that their books will be read in ten years.
goodbye song journey
It used to be the case that for an Irishman to come to the U.S. involved a perilous journey on a ship. It involved singing lots of songs before you left saying goodbye, and once you were in the U.S., it involved singing lots of songs about how you were never going to set foot in Ireland again.
serious logic wistfulness
We are in the realm not of logic but of wistfulness, and I must maintain that wistfulness is a respectable, serious condition. How, otherwise, to account for much of one's life?
misperception
Who has the courage to set right those misperceptions that bring us love?
years too-late attention
Perhaps the relevant truth is that we all find ourselves in temporal currents and that unless you're paying attention you'll discover, often too late, that an undertow of weeks or of years has pulled you deep into trouble.
new-york
New York interposed itself, once and for all, between me and all other places of origin.
night sky manhattan
Sometimes to walk in shaded parts of Manhattan is to be inserted into a Magritte: the street is night while the sky is day.
boys boat universe
I was just a boy on a boat in the universe.
book punishment publication
Publication is almost certainly a punishment for having written a book.
book writing romance
I certainly want to continue to write in a way that's intimate. I love books where you feel you're having a romance with the writer.
summer holiday turkeys
I have been to Turkey almost every summer holiday of my life and pretty much only on summer holidays, which makes me a very shallow Turk indeed.
writing men cricket
I'm completely cricketed out. If I never have to write another word about cricket again, I'll be a happy man.
lying writing deception
Novel-writing is a bit like deception. You lie as little as you possibly can. That's the way I do it, anyway.
identity narrative term
One of the great pluses of being an immigrant is you get to start again in terms of your identity. You get to shed the narratives which cling to you.