“There are three points about stories: if told, they like to be heard; if heard, they like to be taken in; and if taken in, they like to be told.”

“I think the poetry that came out of Belfast, and especially the Queen's University set, in the 1970s and '80s - you know, Paul Muldoon and Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon and Ciaran Carson - that was probably the finest body of work since the Gaelic renaissance, up there with the work of Yeats and Synge and Lady Gregory.”

“There are three points about stories: if told, they like to be heard; if heard, they like to be taken in; and if taken in, they like to be told.”