I work at the sentences. Many of the things people find distinctive about my writing, I think of as natural.

Description is hard. Remember that all description is an opinion about the world. Find a place to stand.

I find being Irish quite a wearing thing. It takes so much work because it is a social construction. People think you are going to be this, this, and this.

Writing is not my problem, it is my solution.

Nothing had happened yet in my life except the need to get out of it.

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.

I work at the sentences. Many of the things people find distinctive about my writing, I think of as natural.