My words in her mind: cold polished stones sinking through a quagmire.
James Joyce

Nations have their ego, just like individuals.
James Joyce

No pen, no ink, no table, no room, no time, no quiet, no inclination.
James Joyce

Poetry, even when apparently most fantastic, is always a revolt against artifice, a revolt, in a sense, against actuality.
James Joyce

Satan, really, is the romantic youth of Jesus re-appearing for a moment.
James Joyce

Shakespeare is the happy hunting ground of all minds that have lost their balance.
James Joyce

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

The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.
James Joyce

The demand that I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole Life to reading my works.
James Joyce

The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you.
James Joyce

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

Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.
James Joyce

Well and what's cheese? Corpse of milk.
James Joyce

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

When I die Dublin will be written in my heart.
James Joyce

Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why.
James Joyce

You forget that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence: and the kingdom of heaven is like a woman.
James Joyce

Your battles inspired me - not the obvious material battles but those that were fought and won behind your forehead.
James Joyce