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

When I was growing up, the exam system didn't allow you to write fiction, so you never did..

I do enjoy Gothic fiction or books about zombies if they are well written and I like vampires..

The Irish are the niggers of Europe, lads..

I write short stories when a little idea occurs to me, that I know isn't a part of a novel that will stand by itself and should be concentrated..

It was a sign of growing up, when the dark made no more difference to you than the day..

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

I've been asked why does Ireland produce so many great musicians, and the answer is it doesn't. When you count the great musicians Ireland has given ….

If you are a writer you're at home, which means you're out of touch. You have to make excuses to get out there and look at how the world is changing..

She'd tried her hand at most things, but drew the line at honesty..

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

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

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 parents were sixty years married..

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

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..

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

I don't work to any commissions. I do what I want to do..

It's hard for me to measure them, or to assess my books because I'm so close to them..