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

Story is about pulling the reader in and a plot is a more externalized mechanism of revelation. A plot is more antic, more performative, and less intimate. When you're telling a story you're telling it into someone's ear.

I'm very keenly aware that there aren't very many women writing literary fiction in Ireland and so that gives me a sense that what I say matters, in some small way.

We do not always like the people we love- we do not always have that choice.

Try to be accurate about stuff.

People whose lives are upside down often read fiction. When you're not sure where you'll end up or how you are going to be, and you're looking for some way forward, fiction is a great friend.

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