My parents were Northern Ireland Labour party people. We read the 'Guardian' and the 'New Statesman,' listened to the BBC. The house was full of books. We didn't get a television until 'That Was The Week That Was' started. There was nothing to do but read.

Tom Paulin

All I do is read books, really. I worry about that sometimes. I don't seem to have a hobby or anything.

Tom Paulin

Unfortunately, in the north and the south of Ireland, intolerant habits are part of the fabric of emotion, part of the identity crisis which afflicts the population of the country.

Tom Paulin

I wish I could write lyrical poems, but I just write the way they come.

Tom Paulin

A truly vibrant and creative culture depends on a system of education which is not divided along class and sectarian lines.

Tom Paulin

Again and again, I find something eerie in many Irish occasions - the unrelenting whiteness, the emotional tribal attachments, the violent prejudices lurking beneath apparently pleasant social surfaces, the cosy smugness of belonging.

Tom Paulin

Everyone who supports Israel is a Zionist.

Tom Paulin

Is the biographer an artist who can and should exist on equal terms with the dramatist, fiction writer and poet? The short and robust answer is, 'Certainly not.'

Tom Paulin

'Ulysses' is the greatest anti-racist text in the English language, and it challenges right from the beginning the vicious racism which lies near the foundations of the Irish Free State and of the Irish republic.

Tom Paulin

One of the strongest features of Puritanism is its autobiographical tendency, its passionate self-regard.

Tom Paulin

This sympathy is not translated into force against the British government because it is not like the anti- apartheid movement which had a high profile here and Mandela is a more engaging figure than Yasser Arafat.

Tom Paulin

In my view the European culture carries a very heavy responsibility for the creation of Israel... it is a product of both British and Stalin's anti- Semitism, but the British never faced their own complicity in its construction.

Tom Paulin

You are either a Zionist or an anti-Zionist.

Tom Paulin

I think protest and actions have to be organised against the Israelis and their backers. There needs to be a concerted high profile campaign to raise awareness of the people in this country.

Tom Paulin

I think attacks on civilians in fact boost morale.

Tom Paulin

I never believed that Israel had the right to exist at all.

Tom Paulin

I don't think the British carry a historical consciousness either.

Tom Paulin

I am not very moved by historical apologies.

Tom Paulin

Hitler bombed London into submission but in fact it created a sense of national solidarity.

Tom Paulin

I'm kind of domestic, untidily so.

Tom Paulin

I always feel freelance writers are leading a heroic life. I think that is the real writer's life. On the other hand, it's good to have another job. It gives you something to do.

Tom Paulin