It is nothing, to give one’s life for Ireland. I’m not the first and maybe I won’t be the last. What’s my life compared with the cause? Kevin Barry More Quotes by Kevin Barry More Quotes From Kevin Barry Tricky the paths a long love might follow, like the spiral down twists of a raindrop on a windowpane. Kevin Barry raindrops might long Before forty, you think that exhaustion is something like a long-lasting hangover. But at forty you learn all about it. Even your passions exhaust you. Kevin Barry hangover passion thinking And the view was suddenly clear to me. The world opened out to its grim beyonds and I realized that, at forty, one must learn the rigors of acceptance. Capitalize it: Acceptance. I needed to accept what was put before me--be it a watery grave in Ireland's only natural fjord, or a return to the city and its grayer intensities, or a wordless exile in some steaming Cambodian swamp hole, or poems or no poems, or children or not, lovers or not, illness or otherwise, success or its absence. I would accept all that was put in my way, from here on through until I breathed my last. Kevin Barry acceptance views children In the early nineties, I was a cub reporter on a city newspaper in Limerick, and assigned to the courthouse there. One day, an old detective sergeant came and whispered to me in the press pit. He pointed out a young offender, a teenager who was up for stealing a car or something relatively minor, and said, 'See this kid? He'll kill.' Kevin Barry teenager cities kids I have always felt a special affinity with V. S. Pritchett. He worked from the ear, primarily, as I do, and he was an all-rounder, writing short stories, novels, memoir, travelogue, critical biography. He lived to be almost 100, and he never stopped, and his work is unified by a great generosity of spirit. Kevin Barry short never great work The short story is a very natural mode of storytelling; most stories can be told quickly. I always think of them as like a tightrope walk - every sentence is a step along the rope, and you can so easily misplace your step and break your neck. Kevin Barry walk step think you Get up, groan, write a bit, moan, eat breakfast, write some more, cycle my bike through the Sligo hills, make up country songs as I pedal along, sing them, have lunch, have a nap, groan, moan, write a small bit more, cook dinner, feed wifey, open a bottle, or several, slump, sleep. Kevin Barry bike dinner sleep breakfast I was freelancing for years in Cork and around. I also wrote freelance pieces for 'The Irish Times.' Kevin Barry freelance irish pieces years I was a cub reporter on a local newspaper in Limerick city, and I used to cover the district court meetings. All of life passed through the Limerick courthouse. Misery, malevolence, the dark side of humanity... I tell ya, it made 'Angela's Ashes' look like 'The Wonderful World of Disney.' Kevin Barry city look humanity life I go to Spain a lot, in winter, for a blast of sunlight to banish the blues brought on by the Irish greys and drizzle. I love the cities of the Spanish interior. Kevin Barry blues sunlight winter love I don't quite operate within the realist mode. I kind of push the stories out towards the cusp of believability - that's the area of interest for me. Kevin Barry push out me interest I greatly enjoyed working as a freelance journalist, because it gets you out of the house, and it gets you talking to people, but it wasn't satisfying all of my cravings, and I knew that I needed to work with the other side of my brain - the darker, murkier side! Kevin Barry you brain work people Very first thing in the morning, I spew some rough genius directly on to the laptop. Then I have coffee and rewrite for three hours. Kevin Barry coffee genius three morning Libraries are where we learn that we can live our lives through books. Kevin Barry learn books live through When you wake up, instead of checking emails on your phone, or counting your retweets, pick up a pen and scratch a few sentences into a notebook. Kevin Barry phone pen you wake-up 'City of Bohane' has been optioned for film, and I've finished a first draft of the script. Kevin Barry city first finished film The fundamental human truth underpinning 'Ox Mountain Death Song' is that men so very often turn into their fathers. The way that everything gets passed down. Kevin Barry truth song men death I remember, as a child, a particular groan that my father would sound when he crawled from the bed in the morning. I hear the same groan now, precisely, every morning, when I emerge from my own lair. It's more than an expression of physical weariness - it's an aching of the soul. Even the groans get passed down. Kevin Barry child soul morning father I was writing fiction in my 20s but in a pretty undisciplined way - late at night, maybe, after I'd peeled myself from the walls of a nightclub and crawled home along the gutters. But I slowly became more serious and more devout in my work, and I fell seriously in love with the short story form. Kevin Barry myself work home love I think journalism is useful training for a writer in the way it takes the preciousness out of the pragmatic side of the craft. Kevin Barry think training journalism way
