I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second.

As I settled down to sleep in that new bed in the dark city, I saw that it was too late now, too late for everything. I would not be given a second chance. In the hours when I woke, I have to tell you that this struck me almost with relief.

Between the ages of 8 and 12 it was difficult to know what my father was saying, and he moved very slowly, and then he died.

The Roman Catholic Church and its rituals were so much part of life that, although my parents would often question a small matter of dogma and none of us seemed more religious than anyone else, no one ever questioned the rituals or the basic tenets of belief.

I think fiction lends itself to messiness rather than the ideal, and plays well with the ironies surrounding what happens versus what should happen.

Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I was brought up in a house of women.

Writing tends to be very deliberate. A novelist could probably run a military campaign with some success. They could certainly run a country.