People think motherhood involves a lot of domestic labor, and it doesn't. It involves being nice to your children as often as possible. That's part of my trick. I don't have that anxiety about meeting their needs.

I'm quite interested in the absolute roots of narrative, why we tell stories at all: where the monsters come from.

I became a full-time writer in 1993 and have been very happy, insofar as anybody is, since.

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

Cats, I always think, only jump into your lap to check if you are cold enough, yet, to eat.

Write whatever way you like. Fiction is made of words on a page; reality is made of something else. It doesn't matter how "real" your story is, or how "made up": what matters is its necessity.

I am interested in silences