Fiona Shaw

"To be honest I live among the English and have always found them to be very honest in their business dealings. They are noble, hard-working and anxious to do the right thing. But joy eludes them, they lack the joy that the Irish have."

"I'm not on the run from anything and I'm not at all clear about what I'm running towards. But as some great writer put it, I want to be certain that when I arrive at death, I'm totally exhausted."

"Even when they have nothing, the Irish emit a kind of happiness, a joy."

"There once was a demographic survey done to determine if money was connected to happiness and Ireland was the only place where this did not turn out to be true."

"I think America becomes more disgruntled by going to the movies and having an endlessly good time at them."

"People who are good at film have a relationship with the camera."