The only way to write a book, I’m fond of telling people, is to actually write a book. That’s how you write a book.

The writing day can be, in some ways, too short, but it's actually a long series of hours, for months at a time, and there is a stillness there.

I love the characters not knowing everything and the reader knowing more than them. There's more mischief in that and more room for seriousness, too.

I’m really lucky with the people around me. They know me, so they don’t confuse the issues really. They know what a book is and they know who I am and they know the difference between the two.

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

I work at the sentences. Many of the things people find distinctive about my writing, I think of as natural.

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