Paula Meehan

I've only read parts of Ulysses. But I'm very lucky: when I was a young woman, I had Ulysses read to me in its entirety - in bed, over the course of a winter. As my night-time story, so to speak. So I heard it before I read it. I loved it when I heard it. The words existed as sounds, rather than signs on a page. We have a fetish with meaning. I'd never claim to understand Ulysses, but I have experienced it. I've gone back and read parts of it and been totally baffled.

I don't have my copy at the moment; I've lent it out to someone, along with Bob Dylan's lyrics, which would be just as important to me as Ulysses.

For me the whole experience of Ulysses was being left astonished by a writer. It takes such courage to throw everything away and create a new world. I don't see it as a mother church type novel; it's not unassailable, but for its time, it was revolutionary.

Paula Meehan's Pillow Talk is published by Gallery Press

Pat McCabe

I've read Ulysses hundreds of times. I suppose I came to it first when I was about 16, but I didn't read it through until I was 21. I think it's amazing - the music and comedy of it. And the audacity of it. It's witty and cheeky. Some of it isn't as strong as other bits, in my humble opinion.

I think it represents the anti-imperialism of Ireland, because it's so anti-class. I dip into it all the time, the last time was about a month ago. That's probably the best way to read it - as a lucky dip.

Everything is in Ulysses. It's all been done in that book. You look at people like Quentin Tarantino, and what they're trying to do. They don't realise that all those post-modern tricks they're trying to achieve are all in "Night Town" in Ulysses. Joyce has done all those things we think are new.

At this stage, praising Ulysses is like praising the Lakes of Killarney or the Sistine Chapel - they're all just there, aren't they?

Pat McCabe's Breakfast On Pluto is published by Picador

Sheila O'Flanagan

I haven't read all of Ulysses, but I have read bits of it over the past few years. It's one of those books that's so hyped that I never wanted to read it. I felt it was so overanalysed that I didn't want to get involved in it. From the bits I read, the experience isn't like reading a book at all - it's more like doing a jigsaw.

First I wondered if Joyce was on some sort of drugs when he was writing it. Then I read his plan of the book, and realised how carefully plotted it all was. But I still do wonder if he was drunk a lot of the time when he was writing it. I didn't finish it because it requires a level of commitment that I didn't have. It's such a mish-mash of styles it didn't engage me enough for that level of commitment. The great Irish novel? I think because of the rambling and disjointed sort of way the book flits around, that it's not a bad encapsulation of Irish people!

Sheila O'Falnagan's Isobel's Wedding, is published by Poolbeg

Cathal O Searcaigh

I've read Ulysses twice. As an Irish language writer, you don't have to confront it in the same way as an English language writer. You can relax with it and not feel that it's as overbearing. But it certainly fascinates me. I love Joyce's magpie knowledge; those verbal acrobatics.

I read it first about 20 years ago, when I was living in London. I bought my copy in one of those wonderful old second-hand bookshops on Charing Cross Road. I still have that copy. It's a bit battered and torn, but I still have it. Ulysses had great resonance to me at that time. It clarified things in my own life that I'd had doubts about - like should I continue trying to be a writer . . .

I was fascinated by the way Joyce used Dublin in a mythological, literal, and sensuous way - how he transformed and transfigured his home. It made me aware of the mythical possibilities of my own home, at the bottom of the foot of Mount Errigal in Donegal. I think Ulysses is a magnificent achievement. It includes everything - and it's a writer's dream to incorporate everything one knows.

Cathal O Searcaigh's Out in the Open is published by Clo Iar-Chonnachta

Colm Toibin

The first time I saw a copy of Ulysses, I was about 13 or 14. I was looking for the dirty bits, but I never found any. I read it through when I was about 18, and since then I've kept coming back to it.

I have five editions. The green Bodley Head one - I really treasure that one. And the hardback Picador, the hardback Lilliput, and Declan's Kiberd's annotated edition. I also have the first American edition from Shakespeare & Co - I bought it for $50 in the States. What I like about the different editions is that there are different notes at the back, which are very interesting.

I find Bloom's mind is like discovering the Beethoven Quartet. I love the rich way he notices everything; it's so cleverly put down and so funny. I love the attack on nationalism in the pub, and obviously love Molly Bloom's soliloquy. But there are big sections I don't like. "Night Town" is too long. I think the more you know about Ulysses, you more you can get out of it.

Colm Toibin's The Story of the Night is published by Picador