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 you grow up in Ireland and read books then you really are obliged to attempt your own some time. It is not exactly a choice. I still don't know if I am a writer. Believe me, there are days when I have my doubts.

I do not believe in evil- I believe that we are human and fallible, that we things and spoil them in an ordinary way.

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.

Sometimes I will spend two or three days not speaking to anyone outside of the immediate family when they come home, and then I find that I've been emailing like fury. Once you give in to that silence, it's quite nice.

For 10 or 11 years, I had my kids, I wrote four or five books, and I was working all the damn time.

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