Theres nothing like obstacle to make a writer — Edna O'Brien

"Oh, God, who does not exist, you hate women, otherwise youd have made them different. And Jesus, who snubbed your mother, you hate them more."

"The vote, I thought, means nothing to women, we should be armed."

"I dont think I have ever learned the game of men and women. To this day I regret the fact that its like a dance I couldnt learn."

"Writers really live in the mind and in hotels of the soul. (Vogue, April 1985)"

"When were young, we leave home and we think were leaving behind us our roots. And we do leave them behind for a time. And then they catch up with us, and they twine themselves around us and thats a great thing."

"What literature does, if its any good, is to open the soul, the mind, the psyche and the body of a reader. Im always looking for that - and in some cases getting into trouble for even attempting it."