Edna O'Brien
Edna O'Brien
Edna O'Brienis an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short story writer. Philip Roth has described her "the most gifted woman now writing in English", while former President of Ireland Mary Robinson has cited her as "one of the great creative writers of her generation."...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth15 December 1932
CountryIreland
writing heart cutting
That is the mystery about writing: it comes out of afflictions, out of the gouged times, when the heart is cut open.
soul mind hotel
Writers really live in the mind and in hotels of the soul.
death way birth
Death in its way comes just as much of a surprise as birth.
real spring winter
In a way Winter is the real Spring - the time when the inner things happen, the resurgence of nature.
childhood trying alive
I am obsessive, also I am industrious. Besides, the time when you are most alive and most aware is in childhood and one is trying to recapture that heightened awareness.
grew creatures
Oh, love, what an unreasoning creature it grew to be.
love-is awful done
I knew I had done something awful. I had killed love, before I even knew the enormity of what love meant.
heart self secret
Life, after all, was a secret with the self. The more one gave out, the less there remained for the center--that center which she coveted for herself and recognized instantly in others. Fruits had it, the very heart of, say, a cherry, where the true worth and flavor lay. Some of course were flawed or hollow in there. Many, in fact.
tuning want forks
I always want to be in love, always. It's like being a tuning fork.
writing thieves littles
For me to write I have to be, a, alone, and b, know that nobody is going to question me. I write the way a thief steals; it's a little covert.
mean writing disturbed
Writing is the product of a deeply disturbed psyche, and by no means therapeutic.
voice knows
... we have so many voices in us, how do we know which ones to obey?
mistake exit knows
I know the mistake I am making. I see the exits in life.
falling-in-love spring differences
When you fall in love, it is spring no matter when. Leaves falling make no difference, they are from another season ...