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Hemingway gave a great piece of advice about writing, which I follow. He said always finish when you're in a little bit of a flow, for the next bout.
Edna O'Brien
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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 with other nationalities, having quite different philosophy about pleasure, about punishment, about life, and about death. At least it does not leave one pusillanimous.
Edna O'Brien
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On the island of tears, we were subjected to every kind of humiliation.
Edna O'Brien
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I crossed the room, and what you did was to feel my hair over and over again and in different ways, touch it, with the palm of your hand... felt it, strands of hair, with your fingers, touched it as if it were cloth, the way a child touches its favorite surfaces.
Edna O'Brien
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Books everywhere. On the shelves and on the small space above the rows of books and all along the floor and under chairs, books that I have read, books that I have not read.
Edna O'Brien
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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.
Edna O'Brien
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We all leave one another. We die, we change — it's mostly change — we outgrow our best friends; but even if I do leave you, I will have passed on to you something of myself; you will be a different person because of knowing me; it's inescapable.
Edna O'Brien
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I know the mistake I am making. I see the exits in life.
Edna O'Brien
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Every day in Ireland, or at least every week, there's another story of a baby found on a river bank or of some dark, covert, incestuous family. An abortion must be such a painful and excruciating decision that to combine it then with half a community jumping down your neck telling you you're dealing in murder, I think that's awful.
Edna O'Brien
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There was always a real reason for everything — why spoons tarnished, and jam furred, and people declined into God, or drink, or card games.
Edna O'Brien
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To Crystal, hair was the most important thing on earth. She would never get married because you couldn't wear curlers in bed then.
Edna O'Brien
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Love... is like nature, but in reverse; first it fruits, then it flowers, then it seems to wither, then it goes deep, deep down into its burrow, where no one sees it, where it is lost from sight, and ultimately people die with that secret buried inside their souls.
Edna O'Brien
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Writers, however mature and wise and eminent, are children at heart.
Edna O'Brien
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After that dark woman you search for someone who will fit into the irregular corners of your heart.
Edna O'Brien
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I am committing suicide through lack of intelligence, and through not knowing, not learning to know, how to live.
Edna O'Brien
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Quote of the day
Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.
Faith Baldwin
Edna O'Brien
Born:
December 15, 1930
(age 93)
Bio:
Edna O'Brien is an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short story writer. She is considered the "doyenne" of Irish literature.
Known for:
The Little Red Chairs (2015)
The Country Girls (1960)
Country Girl (2012)
The Love Object (1968)
Girl with Green Eyes (1962)
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