I gave them all the truth and none of the honesty.

The contemporary American novelist benefits in a way from being ignored. It makes you angrier and makes you want to go into all of those places where you shouldnt.

So much of her time spent like this: dreaming up things to say and never quite saying them.

We shape ourselves by our imaginative reach.

The thing about love is that we come alive in bodies not our own.

Goodness was more difficult than evil. Evil men knew that more than good men. That's why they became evil. That's why it stuck with them. Evil was for those who could never reach the truth. It was a mask for stupidity and lack of love. Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter -- it was none of those things, he said, and it had to be fought for.

Anakana Schofield is part of a new wave of wonderful Irish fiction-international in scope and electrically alive.