I am interested in silences

In more static societies, like Ireland, you can tell where a person is from by their surname, or where their grandparents are from.

I think it’s very important to write a demythologized woman character. My characters are flawed. They are no better than they should be.

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

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 do wish I could write like some of the American women, who can be clever and heartfelt and hopeful; people like Lorrie Moore and Jennifer Egan. But Ireland messed me up too much, I think, so I can't.

I love the characters not knowing everything and the reader knowing more than them. There's more mischief in that and more room for seriousness, too.