“...knowing how it is so that all boys grow up and pull away from home to unmake the world in the guise of making it, nature decrees it so.” WorldBoys Book:Prophet Song Source: Prophet Song
“What I’m interested in discovering is human truth. What does it mean to be alive within the dream of life? It seems to me there are essential human truths that have never changed throughout the ages, and that what we think of as unique to our own time is, in fact, the general. I am convinced, as a writer, that we must be able to witness ourselves as we have been moved and shaped by such universal forces.” PhilosophyTruthHuman NatureHuman TruthsUniversal Forces Author:Paul Lynch
“if you say one thing is another thing and you say it enough times, then it must be so, and if you keep saying it over and over people accept it as true – this is an old idea, of course, it really is nothing new, but you’re watching it happen in your own time and not in a book.” TruthLiterary Fiction Book:Prophet Song Source: Prophet Song
“War shapes itself around them, gunfire that sounds like pneumatic drilling, shelling that drums the earth and sends shudders into the house, the windows and the wooden floors rattling...” WarDestructionGunfireShelling Book:Prophet Song Source: Prophet Song
“the child absorbing the mother’s trauma and storing it in his body for later use,” Children Book:Prophet Song Source: Prophet Song
“Sooner or later pain becomes too great for fear and when the people's fear has gone the regime will have to go.” PoliticsFictionSocietyScience FictionContemporary Book:Prophet Song Source: Prophet Song
“He lifts his face and she sees the eyes of a man who has not slept and is met with pity for him, for what is known by the telling of the hands, how the man has been trained for the rules of the game but the game is changed so what now is the man?” PoliticsRule Of Law Book:Prophet Song Source: Prophet Song
“... time is at once addition and subtraction, time adds one day to the next and always takes away from what's left...” TimeMortalityDays Book:Prophet Song Source: Prophet Song
“Daylight tricks you into thinking what you see is truth, lets you go through life thinking you know everything. But the truth is we are sleepwalkers. We walk through the night that is chaos and dark and forever keeps its truth to itself.” TruthDarknessDaylight Book:Grace Source: Grace
“Freedom is your soul in the emptiness of night. Freedom is this dark that is as great as what it holds the stars and everything beneath it and yet how it seems to be nothing, has no beginning, no end, and no center.” NightFreedomDarkness Book:Grace Source: Grace
“Watching the light now as it broods upon the street, a slow pulsation that gives to sudden clarity then dims, thinking about what lies hidden, seeing that what is revealed in the soft blooming light is the everyday occurring” LightLiterary Fiction Book:Prophet Song Source: Prophet Song
“It's plain as day what they're up to, he says, they're trying to chase out like vermin ,that's what they're doing, they want to exterminate it's like rats, it's just a matter of time and effort, I used to work as a city planner you know, there's a finite number of roads and buildings in this city, drop enough ordinance and after a time you have put a hole in every road, you'll have struck every block of flats, every shop and house then you keep going night and day you just keep dropping more and more until you smashed every structure into the ground and you keep going until you turn the brickwork into dust and there's nothing left but the people who refuse to leave” WarPeace Book:Prophet Song Source: Prophet Song
“Sometimes, I like to imagine the perfect reader - the reader who not just understands what I am about, but soaks up every word as if it were written for them. I have been fortunate in that I have got to meet such readers now and again.” SometimesPerfectImagine Author:Paul Lynch
“"Night sky was black and then there was blood, morning crack of light on the edge of the earth." The ideal first sentence contains within it an intimation of the whole book 'Red Sky in Morning'. That's what I was hoping for.” BookEarthNightBlackMorningNight Sky Author:Paul Lynch
“I particularly like the catchphrase of Leonardo Da Vinci: Ostinato Rigore! (Which means, pretty much, Relentless Rigor).” MeanRelentlessLeonardo Author:Paul Lynch
“While I read almost all my newspapers online, I'm not a big fan of e-books because I like to see what I've read and remember it. Books are a way of making memory physical.” BookRememberMemoriesOnline Author:Paul Lynch
“I need my trusty Mac laptop to write. I can't work with anything else. I'm used to the feel of the keys. I also like, more than anything else, Apple's Pages.” Writing Author:Paul Lynch
“I write in Times New Roman, 12 point, and arrange the margins so that the screen looks like a page from a book. This spurs me on to make the writing as perfect as I can make it.” WritingBookPerfect Author:Paul Lynch
“I find that jazz loosens up the deep place of my mind, lets me find my own strange rhythms. Generally, I find the knottier the jazz, the better. Anything with singing is a distraction. Listening to classical music tends to have the unconscious effect of making my writing too smooth.” WritingMindStrangeListeningSingingLet MeJazzRhythmUnconsciousDistractionSmoothClassical Music Author:Paul Lynch
“I'm not quite Honoré de Balzac, but I can't start without a strong espresso. After an hour and a half or so, I need another. Nothing else, mind, and certainly not alcohol. Can't imagine anything more ridiculous than drink-writing.” MindStrongHoursImagineAlcoholRidiculous Author:Paul Lynch
“I read continually and don't understand writers who say they don't read while working on a book. For a start, a book takes me about two years to write, so there's no way I am depriving myself of reading during that time. Another thing is that reading other writers is continually inspiring - reading great writers reminds you how hard you have to work.” WritingBookReadingGreat Writers Author:Paul Lynch