Most working days I can be at my desk for nine hours a day..

When you grow up on an island, what matters is how you stand to the sea..

I wouldn't go out of my way to experience the indignity of middle-age just because it might be good meat for a story..

My novels come from within me; they are things I feel I want to do..

I'm not recognised that much. I'm just a bald man in glasses and there's a rash of them in Dublin. It'd be different if I had a mohican..

It's great meeting children because you never know what they will say..

The best way to reveal a character is to get them to open their mouths..

To claim that music is more important than oxygen would be trite and sentimental. It would also be true..

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

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….

I like naming characters..

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….

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

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..

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….

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

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..

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….

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….

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

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