If there is a heaven, Jane Austen is sitting in a small room with Mother Teresa and Princess Diana, listening to Duran Duran, forever. If there's a h….

I like naming characters..

I'm going to sound like an old man but at my age, it's lovely doing something that you've never done before..

You know people are always putting Ulysses in the top 10 books ever written but I doubt that any of those people were really moved by it..

Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph. Unt….

Good ideas are often murdered by better ones..

Some of the people who look the most normal are probably the maddest people trying to look normal..

It's a big con job. We have sold the myth of Dublin as a sexy place incredibly well; because it is a dreary little dump most of the time..

She's a pot-of-tea-before-I-say-boo-to-you woman. There's always a pile of warm teabags in the sink when I come down, like what a horse would leave b….

The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times..

Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's part of any endeavour, not just writing..

When I was a kid, if you didn't speak Irish, you really wanted to. And you played Gaelic games and you didn't pay any attention to what was happening….

I see people in terms of dialogue and I believe that people are their talk..

Dreaming was only nice while it lasted..

I tend to plan as I write. And I want to leave myself open and the character open to keep on going until it seems to be the time to stop..

When I'm writing I just think there's only the page and me and nobody else..

No matter how close to personal experience a story might be, inevitably you are going to get to a part that isn't yours and, actually, whether it hap….

Do not place a photograph of your favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide..

Sometimes adults seem as though they have cut a chord from being a child..

I wasn't even aware of the Year of the Family. I couldn't give a toss. These things - the year of the family, the year of the three-legged dog. I thi….

If you're from Dublin, for example, chances are you live with your family, if you're lucky enough to, right up to the mid-20s. And most of the people….