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
love people like-you
...people liking you or not liking you is an accident and is to do with them and not you. That goes for love too, only more so.
dream morning real
The other me, who did not mean to drown herself, went under the sea and remained there for a long time. Eventually she surfaced near Japan and people gave her gifts but she had been so long under the sea she did not recognize what they were. She is a sly one. Mostly at night we commune. Night. Harbinger of dream and nightmare and bearer of omens which defy the music of words. In the morning the fear of her going is very real and very alarming. It can make one tremble. Not that she cares. She is the muse. I am the messenger.
writing fetus
Writing is like carrying a fetus.
real spring winter
In a way Winter is the real Spring - the time when the inner things happen, the resurgence of nature.
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.
mind literature lasts
literature is the last banquet between minds.
men competition built
I have some women friends but I prefer men. Dont trust women. There is a built-in competition between women.
flower bees saffron
never forget this moment, the hum of the bee, the saffron threads of the flower, the drawn blinds, nature's assiduousness and human cruelty.
people demon form
Movie people are possessed by demons, but a very low form of demons.
long catholic guilt
I'm an Irish Catholic and I have a long iceberg of guilt.
fate individual existence
It is increasingly clear that the fate of the universe will come to depend more and more on individuals as the bungling of bureaucracy permeates every corner of our existence.
bystanders fiction said
History is said to be written by the victors. Fiction, by contrast, is largely the work of injured bystanders.
character tree ireland-and-the-irish
When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.
country philosophy odds
Irish? In truth I would not want to be anything else. It is a state of mind as well as an actual country. It is being at odds withother nationalities, having quite different philosophy about pleasure, about punishment, about life, and about death. At least it does not leave one pusillanimous.