The Novel Does Not Simply Recount Experience,

We Are Minor In Everything But Our Passions.

As A Novelist, I Cannot Occupy Myself With "characters," Or At Any Rate Central Ones, Who Lack Panache, In One Or Another Sense, Who Would Be Incapable Of A Major Action Or A Major Passion, Or Who Have Not A Touch Of The Ambiguity, The Ultimate Unaccountability, The Enlarging Mistiness Of Persons "in History." History, As More Austerely I Now Know It, Is Not Romantic. But I Am.

Pity The Selfishness Of Lovers: It Is Brief, A Forlorn Hope; It Is Impossible.

Ireland Is A Great Country To Die Or Be Married In.

Bring All Your Intelligence To Bear On Your Beginning.