There are about as many ways to be dead as there are to be alive. People linger in different ways, both publicly and privately.

If you can just actually let the character be for a bit, then you get the right sense.

I write anywhere - when I have an idea it’s hard not to write. I used to be kind of precious about where I wrote. Everything had to be quiet and I couldn’t be disturbed, it really filled my day.

In more static societies, like Ireland, you can tell where a person is from by their surname, or where their grandparents are from.

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

I am interested in silences

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.