I think you know everything at eight. But is is hidden from you, sealed up, in a way you have to cut yourself open to find.

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.

We have lost the art of public tenderness, these small gestures of wiping and washing; we have forgotten how abjectly the body welcomes a formal touch.

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.

Sometimes I will spend two or three days not speaking to anyone outside of the immediate family when they come home, and then I find that I've been emailing like fury. Once you give in to that silence, it's quite nice.

There are men who would do anything, asleep, and I'm not sure what stops them when they wake. I do not know how they draw the line.

When I'm working, I'm not so much disciplined as obsessive. I have this feeling that I need to clear everything away and get this down.