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

It was a silence that heard itself, awful and beautiful.

One of those out-of-the-ordinary days that made sense of the slew of ordinary days. New York had a way of doing that. Every now and then the city shook its soul out. It assailed you with an image, or a day, or a crime, or a terror, or a beauty so difficult to wrap your mind around that you had to shake your head in disbelief.

He might have been naive, but he didn't care; he said he's rather die with his heart on his sleeve than end up another cynic.

I have different books for different times of the day, let alone different seasons of the year!

Personally, I like the social novel. I like writing that gets in and under the hood and looks about - at what's going on. But I don't say to any writer that that's absolutely what they should do.

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