Quotes by Edna O'Brien

About Edna O'Brien:

Edna O'Brien is an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short story writer. She is considered the "doyenne" of Irish literature. Philip Roth considers her "the most gifted woman now writing in English", while former President of Ireland Mary Robinson regards her as "one of the great creative writers of her generation."
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I was lonelier than I should be, for a woman in love, or half in love.

Edna O'Brien

Money talks, but tell me why all it says is just Goodbye.

Edna O'Brien

The words ran away with me.

Edna O'Brien

That is the mystery about writing: it comes out of afflictions, out of the gouged times, when the heart is cut open.

Edna O'Brien

In our deepest moments we say the most inadequate things."

Edna O'Brien

Darkness is drawn to light, but light does not know it; light must absorb the darkness and therefore meet its own extinguishment.

Edna O'Brien

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 i...

Edna O'Brien

If the Holy Communion touched my teeth, I thought that was a mortal sin

Edna O'Brien

Writing is like carrying a fetus.

Edna O'Brien

Writers really live in the mind and in hotels of the soul.

Edna O'Brien

Recollection is not something that I can summon up, it simply comes and I am the servant of it.

Edna O'Brien

I'm an Irish Catholic and I have a long iceberg of guilt.

Edna O'Brien

In every question and every remark tossed back and forth between lovers who have not played out the last fugue, there is one question and it is this: 'Is there someone new?'

Edna O'Brien

Countries are either mothers or fathers, and engender the emotional bristle secretly reserved for either sire.

Edna O'Brien

When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.

Edna O'Brien

Writers are always anxious, always on the run--from the telephone, from responsibilities, from the distractions of the world.

Edna O'Brien

I am obsessive, also I am industrious. Besides, the time when you are most alive and most aware is in childhood and one is trying to recapture that heightened awareness.

Edna O'Brien

I have some women friends but I prefer men. Don't trust women. There is a built-in competition between women.

Edna O'Brien

My hand does the work and I don't have to think; in fact, were I to think, it would stop the flow. It's like a dam in the brain that bursts.

Edna O'Brien

The vote means nothing to women. We should be armed.

Edna O'Brien

Author Bio

  • NameEdna O'Brien
  • DescriptionNovelist, memoirist, biographer, playwright, poet and short story writer
  • BornDecember 15, 1930
  • CountryIreland
  • ProfessionScreenwriter; Poet; Author; Novelist
  • WorksThe Country Girls; Casualties Of Peace