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 hap…

- Roddy Doyle

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 h…

- Roddy Doyle

Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph. Unt…

- Roddy Doyle

When I'm writing I just think there's only the page and me and nobody else.

- Roddy Doyle

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.

- Roddy Doyle

I see people in terms of dialogue and I believe that people are their talk.

- Roddy Doyle

Some of the people who look the most normal are probably the maddest people trying to look normal.

- Roddy Doyle

It's a big con job. We have sold the myth of Dublin as a sexy place incredibly well; because it is a dreary little dump most of the time.

- Roddy Doyle

To claim that music is more important than oxygen would be trite and sentimental. It would also be true.

- Roddy Doyle