Dylan O'Sullivan Quotes

Irish writer and editor

Dylan O'Sullivan is an Irish writer and editor based in Cork, Ireland. He holds a BA in English Studies from Trinity College Dublin and an MA in New Media from the University of Amsterdam, where he spent two years working as a writing specialist before going solo. He is Senior Editor at Infinite Books and writes the Substack newsletter Essayful, which has tens of thousands of subscribers and condenses a decade of three-books-per-week reading into long-form essays on writing, books, and culture. His byline has appeared in The Spectator, Areo Magazine, and other publications. He also offers one-on-one writing instruction over Zoom for novelists, academics, and other writers.

Many never put pen to paper for fear of ruining the perfectly white page of their life, so they leave it blank

a death with no life behind it

It's very difficult to think yourself out of melancholy you thought yourself into, it's far easier to work your way out, write your way out, walk your way out

You really have no idea what you actually think until you attempt to write it down

death by a thousand hesitations, a terrible way to go

good ideas seem to require some kind of shade or shadow, they don't survive direct sunlight or brightly-lit places

Many spend years in pain just to avoid a few days of embarrassment, don't do that

If you're not losing faith in humanity all the time, you're just not paying attention, but none of that counts, the only thing that counts is whether you can regain it, again and again

The answers you seek are in the silence you're avoiding

You'll find more wisdom crawling through one great book than skimming through ten

It's not about winning, it's about sleeping soundly in the knowledge that you gave everything you had

Fortune favors the trier