“All a work of art can do is present the surface. I can't know the insi...” — John Banville Quote

“All a work of art can do is present the surface. I can't know the insides of people. I know very little about the inside of myself.”

“For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.”

“It's great people still care about books, and it's great you can still fashion a life from literature.”

“After a test match it's very easy to make selections, once you've seen exactly how the surface is going to play.”

“Like public surface in general, sewers are unbelievably important. They're so important that we make sure they work basically all of the time. Which is why you never think of them - that's kind of the point.”

“There was so much about my dad that wasn't on the surface.”