John McGahern

About this time, whether he felt there wasn't sufficient drama in his life or that he was determined not to be outdone by Miss McCabe, he decided that he was dying. ↗

— John McGahern

#father #sickness #death

But that private world, once it's dramatised, doesn't live again until it finds a reader. ↗

— John McGahern

#finds #live #once #private #private world

I belong to the middle class that grew up very influenced by the Catholic church. The people of the novel are from a more pagan and practical world in which the Christianity is just a veneer. ↗

— John McGahern

#catholic #catholic church #christianity #church #class

I feel I grew up in a different century than I live in. I think most of them are changes for the good. ↗

— John McGahern

#changes #different #feel #good #grew

I love the description of Gothic churches before the printed word, that they were the bibles of the poor. ↗

— John McGahern

#churches #description #gothic #i #i love

I read all the time. I was reading a book I admire very much by Alice McDermot called Charming Billy. ↗

— John McGahern

#alice #billy #book #called #charming

I think it's linked to the realisation that we're not going to live forever and that the way of saying and the language become more important than the story. ↗

— John McGahern

#forever #going #i #i think #important

I think technique can be taught but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, and I see writing and reading as completely related. One almost couldn't exist without the other. ↗

— John McGahern

#completely #exist #i #i see #i think

I think that each of us inhabits a private world that others cannot see. The only difference between the writer and the reader is that the writer is able to dramatise that private world. ↗

— John McGahern

#between #cannot #difference #each #i

I used to take five or six books away and bring five or six books back. Nobody gave me direction or advice and I read much in the way that a boy might watch television. ↗

— John McGahern

#away #back #books #boy #bring