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.

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.

If your life just falls apart early on, you can put it together again. Its the people who are always on the brink of crisis who dont hit bottom who are in trouble.

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

To be able to have the space to sit down and write has always been my central policy.

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

Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you ­finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.