“I know that big people don't like questions from children. They can ask all the questions they like, How's school? Are you a good boy? Did you say your prayers? but if you ask them did they say the...”

“You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.”

“The master says its a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says its a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if theres anyone in the world who would like us to live.”

“You have to study and learn so that you can make up your own mind. Stock your mind, stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere with it. If you won the Irish...”

“He sits in an old armchair in the corner covered with bits of blankets and a bucket behind the chair that stinks enough to make you sick and when you look at that old man in the dark corner you wan...”

“Rest your eyes and then read till they fall out of your head.”

“Limerick gained a reputation for piety, but we knew it was only the rain.”

“The tune was sad, as the best of Ireland was, melancholy and lovely as a lover's tears.”

“World is suddener than we fancy it.”

“Take that rage, put it on a page, take the page to the stage, blow the roof off the place.”