James Joyce quotes

James Joyce is one of Ireland’s most celebrated writers and probably its most influential.

He is best known for his novels Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegan’s Wake. He also wrote a series of short stories called Dubliners and numerous poems.

His claim to be Ireland’s most influential writer stems from his use of the ‘stream of consciousness’ technique in which the thoughts of his characters come tumbling out one after another with little need for storyline or plot. It was a technique later embraced by numerous other writers across the world.

Many of Joyce’s best known quotes relate to Ireland, writing and the creative process.

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But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.

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I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.

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There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being.

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I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.

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I think a child should be allowed to take his father’s or mother’s name at will on coming of age. Paternity is a legal fiction.

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Men are governed by lines of intellect – women: by curves of emotion.

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Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother’s love is not.

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Nations have their ego, just like individuals.

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The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.

James Joyce Quotes

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