I find being Irish quite a wearing thing. It takes so much work because it is a social construction. People think you are going to be this, this, and this.

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.

Try to be accurate about stuff.

My kids are supposed to live till they are one hundred. You don't have to have a perfect house or a perfect relationship with your child or a perfect child, and you yourself do not have to be perfect.

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

I am interested in levels of brain discourse. How articulate are the voices in your head? You know, there's a different voice for the phone, and a different voice if you're talking in bed. When you're starting off with a narrator, it's interesting to think, where is their voice coming from, what part of their brain?

I never wanted to be mainstream as a writer, but look at what's happened.