It’s easy have things happen to you. All you have to do is exist. Making things happen back is the hard thing.

JOHNSEY HAD GOTTEN used to being sad after Daddy died. This extra sadness was just like taking more weight forking hay: you built it up gradually so that when your burden increased, your muscles were ready and you would not collapse under it.

Sometimes you didn’t know how you would feel about doing a thing until you went and did it. And then it’s too late; you can never ever undo it

You can be famous for a lot of different things. You can’t be famous for something bad, though. You can be known to all for that bad thing, but there’s a different word for that kind of fame. You wouldn’t call a fella a famous murderer or a famous rapist or what have you. Them fellas are called notorious. They haven’t fame; they have notoriety.

If Daddy had ever seen that fellow’s big auld Dublin nose, Johnsey knew, he would have made a great skit out of it. He would have said something to Johnsey like I bet that lad nose a lot about vegetables.