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

I am a trembling mess from hip to knee. There is a terrible heat, a looseness in my innards that makes me want to dig my fists between my thighs. It is a confusing feeling - somewhere between diarrhoea and sex - this grief that is almost genital.

People do not change, they are merely revealed.

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

One of the reasons I write is I like being surprised

The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting words on the page.

I was raised in a very old fashioned Ireland where women were reared to be lovely.