"I was a released internee; I was off the run. One of the reasons I had been chosen to be on the republican delegation for the talks was because I wasn't a wanted man... I played very little part in the meeting myself."

"I've been listening to a phrase, Internment Without Trial. And I keep thinking of the people that were murdered without trial. I'm not talking about the police, I'm not talking about the army. I'm talking about people that were shot dead on their doorsteps, through windows, in the presence of their children, their parents and their wives. These people in their graves are crying out for retribution and it's not going to come anymore. And there are people who are not in their graves. They're in hospitals. They're in wheelchairs. There are girls who thought they were going to grow up, and never will. And young women who thought they were going to get married, and they never will, and they'd rather they were dead. And there are people too that... they don't want to be dead because their brains are destroyed, they're vegetables and they're going to be vegetables forever. And you are morally responsible for that! Morally, you are a murderer! And not only are you a murderer, but now you add the extra dimension by saying 'I want peace' and you're a hypocrite as well!"

"You've spoken about British rule of Ireland, and ending British rule in Ireland. I want to ask you this. Do you see Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom for the foreseeable future? Isn't that the truth of it, it's going to? Everybody knows it's going to. So why don't you level with your supporters and with the Irish people and say, 'it is going to remain part of the United Kingdom for the foreseeable future and now let's talk about how it can be made into a just society.' Why don't you face up to reality?"

"The art of writing history is the art of emphasizing the significant facts at the expense of the insignificant. And it is the same in every field of knowledge. Knowledge is power only if a man knows what facts not to bother about."

"There are some people who want to throw their arms round you simply because it is Christmas; there are other people who want to strangle you simply because it is Christmas."

"We welcome almost any break in the monotony of things, and a man has only to murder a series of wives in a new way to become known to millions of people who have never heard of Homer."

"In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence. One has to sit still like a mystic and wait. One soon learns that fussing, instead of achieving things, merely prevents things from happening. To be passive is in some circumstances the most efficient form of activity. You cannot command events: you can only put yourself in the place where events will happen to you. No impatient man has ever seen Nature."

"The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions."

"Most of us can remember a time when a birthday — especially if it was one's own — brightened the world as if a second sun had risen."