I do wish I could write like some of the American women, who can be clever and heartfelt and hopeful; people like Lorrie Moore and Jennifer Egan. But Ireland messed me up too much, I think, so I can't.

It is very hard to trace the effect of words on a life.

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.

If you try to control it too much, the book is dead. You have to let it fall apart quite early on and let it start doing its own thing. And that takes nerve, not to panic that the book you were going to write is not the book you will have at the end of the day.

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

Only bad writers think that their work is really good.

I think young children in the Western middle classes are objects of incredible anxiety.