If your life just falls apart early on, you can put it together again. Its the people who are always on the brink of crisis who dont hit bottom who are in trouble.

For 10 or 11 years, I had my kids, I wrote four or five books, and I was working all the damn time.

I think writers worry that you might not exist in some strange way if you're not writing.

Here we go again. Always a few drinks, but sometimes even sober, we play the unhappiness game; endlessly round and round. Ding dong. Tighter and tighter. On and on. Push me pull you. Come here and i'll tell you how much i hate you. Hang on a minute while i leave you. All the while we know we are missing the point, whatever the point used to be.

There are about as many ways to be dead as there are to be alive. People linger in different ways, both publicly and privately.

The only way to write a book, I’m fond of telling people, is to actually write a book. That’s how you write a book.

If you grow up in Ireland and read books then you really are obliged to attempt your own some time. It is not exactly a choice. I still don't know if I am a writer. Believe me, there are days when I have my doubts.