Roddy Doyle quotes

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 hell, she's standing. (Roddy Doyle)
When I was growing up, the exam system didn't allow you to write fiction, so you never did.
Roddy Doyle
I tend to plan as I write. And I want to leave myself open and the character open to keep on going until it seems to be the time to stop.
Roddy Doyle
Good ideas are often murdered by better ones.
Roddy Doyle
It was a sign of growing up, when the dark made no more difference to you than the day.
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
I'm going to sound like an old man but at my age, it's lovely doing something that you've never done before.
Roddy Doyle
One day at a time, sweet Jesus. Whoever wrote that one hadn't a clue. A day is a fuckin' eternity.
Roddy Doyle
I see people in terms of dialogue and I believe that people are their talk.
Roddy Doyle
When you grow up on an island, what matters is how you stand to the sea.
Roddy Doyle
I do enjoy Gothic fiction or books about zombies if they are well written and I like vampires. (Roddy Doyle)
Sometimes adults seem as though they have cut a chord from being a child.
Roddy Doyle
I've been asked why does Ireland produce so many great musicians, and the answer is it doesn't. When you count the great musicians Ireland has given the world in the last 20 years, you can do it on one hand.
Roddy Doyle
My novels come from within me; they are things I feel I want to do.
Roddy Doyle
Some of the people who look the most normal are probably the maddest people trying to look normal.
Roddy Doyle
If you're from Dublin, for example, chances are you live with your family, if you're lucky enough to, right up to the mid-20s. And most of the people I know, when they finally sort of set off on their own, they don't stray all that far.
Roddy Doyle
I like naming characters.
Roddy Doyle
It's great meeting children because you never know what they will say.
Roddy Doyle
My parents were sixty years married.
Roddy Doyle
It's hard for me to measure them, or to assess my books because I'm so close to them.
Roddy Doyle
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 happened or not becomes irrelevant. It is all about choosing the right words. (Roddy Doyle)
When I'm writing I just think there's only the page and me and nobody else.
Roddy Doyle
The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.
Roddy Doyle
If you are a writer you're at home, which means you're out of touch. You have to make excuses to get out there and look at how the world is changing.
Roddy Doyle
Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's part of any endeavour, not just writing.
Roddy Doyle