Top 15 Bernard MacLaverty Quotes

There's not much you can do in this world without people getting to know.

You can't choose your children.

INTERVIEWER: (After an awkward silence) And how do you see the future? PROFUNDO: I wait for it to come and then look at it (laughs).

He continued talking. "When you find out about real education you can never leave it alone. I don't mean A-levels and things like that - you are just proving something to yourself with them - but books, ideas, feelings. Everything to do with up here." He tapped his temple. "And here." He tapped the middle of his chest.

"But listen to this," Kathleen laughed and wheezed. "We had been talking about books. He tells me he reads a lot - as a matter of fact he's book mad - and when I came in with the tea I said 'Do you like Earl Grey?' and he says, 'I don't know. What did he write?' Isn't that marvellous?" Mary smiled and nodded while Kathleen giggled uncontrollably.

It is disconcerting to find that an acquaintance considers you his best friend, his soul mate, but I could do nothing about it.

Neil offered his arm as she lowered herself from the step to the ground. "What a polite young man." "That's my mother's fault."

I come from the kind of house where if my father saw me with a book in my hand he'd say, "Can you not find something better to do?"

It concentrates the mind wonderfully knowing that this [life] is all we can expect.

Sit down, son, don't loom.

On the wall above the desk was an ikon he had bought in Thessaloníki - he afterwards discovered that he had paid too much for it. It had been hanging for some months before he noticed, his attention focused by a moment of rare idleness, that Christ had a woodworm hole in the pupil of his left eye. It was inconspicuous by its position, and rather than detracting from the impact, he felt the ikon was enhanced by the authenticity of this small defect.

A summer insect flew into the metal dome of the Anglepoise and knocked around like a tiny knuckle.

"Four pounds?" Still the woman hesitated. "Any less and it'd be a favour," he said. Already he was out of pocket. He stood up to end the bargaining.

There's nobody can fix this but yourself. You are the only one who can make the changes.

When she emptied the kettle she always filled it for the benefit of the next person.