Bernard MacLaverty

"Stella found herself isolating one particular snowflake - a small one - and watching its progress. Lifting, floating, eddying upwards, sinking among the others. Dithering. Then when it went off her radar she would choose another and watch it and will it to survive for as long as possible."

"What happened to you? You're nothing but appetite."

"He wanted to pray but couldn't because he no longer believed. Prayer was just an intense wishing."

"Believers. I mean, where have they all gone?"

"Gerry had once said to her in the middle of an argument that he didn't believe in souls but if, just perchance, they did exist, hers would be like a razor. She had been made that way by the Catholic Church, he said. Inflexible, narrow, capable of doing terrible damage by her adherence to rules and systems. But she totally objected. She told him that if she was a good person at all, it had come from her religion. If she had any sense of justice and fairness, any concept of equality, then it had come from the Church."

"When she emptied the kettle she always filled it for the benefit of the next person."

"There's nobody can fix this but yourself. You are the only one who can make the changes."

""Four pounds?" Still the woman hesitated. "Any less and it'd be a favour," he said. Already he was out of pocket. He stood up to end the bargaining."

"A summer insect flew into the metal dome of the Anglepoise and knocked around like a tiny knuckle."

"On the wall above the desk was an ikon he had bought in Thessaloníki - he afterwards discovered that he had paid too much for it. It had been hanging for some months before he noticed, his attention focused by a moment of rare idleness, that Christ had a woodworm hole in the pupil of his left eye. It was inconspicuous by its position, and rather than detracting from the impact, he felt the ikon was enhanced by the authenticity of this small defect."

"Sit down, son, don't loom."

"It concentrates the mind wonderfully knowing that this [life] is all we can expect."

"I come from the kind of house where if my father saw me with a book in my hand he'd say, "Can you not find something better to do?""

"Neil offered his arm as she lowered herself from the step to the ground. "What a polite young man." "That's my mother's fault.""

"It is disconcerting to find that an acquaintance considers you his best friend, his soul mate, but I could do nothing about it."

""But listen to this," Kathleen laughed and wheezed. "We had been talking about books. He tells me he reads a lot - as a matter of fact he's book mad - and when I came in with the tea I said 'Do you like Earl Grey?' and he says, 'I don't know. What did he write?' Isn't that marvellous?" Mary smiled and nodded while Kathleen giggled uncontrollably."

"He continued talking. "When you find out about real education you can never leave it alone. I don't mean A-levels and things like that - you are just proving something to yourself with them - but books, ideas, feelings. Everything to do with up here." He tapped his temple. "And here." He tapped the middle of his chest."

"INTERVIEWER: (After an awkward silence) And how do you see the future? PROFUNDO: I wait for it to come and then look at it (laughs)."

"You can't choose your children."

"There's not much you can do in this world without people getting to know."