Only bad writers think that their work is really good.

There are so few people given us to love. I want to tell my daughters this, that each time you fall in love it is important, even at nineteen. Especially at nineteen. And if you can, at nineteen, count the people you love on one hand, you will not, at forty, have run out of fingers on the other. There are so few people given us to love and they all stick.

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

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

No woman that I know is capable of leaving her child down for thirty seconds. She can't walk away without making sure that everything is absolutely as secure and safe for her child as can be.

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

I have a small room to write in. One wall is completely covered in books. And I face the window with the curtain closed to stop the light hitting the computer.