The one joy that has kept me going through life has been the fact that stories unite us. To see you as you listen to me now, as you have always listened to me, is to know this: what I can believe, you can believe. And the way we all see our story-not just as Irish people but as flesh and blood individuals and not the way people tell us to see it-that's what we own, no matter who we are and where we come from.

Writers have opinions - that, in part, is why they write. Therefore they have strong likes and dislikes.

Stick a lighted candle up your backside to give yourself that inner glow.

Every pain is a lesson.

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

For a startling period of my life, I reported the Troubles in Ireland for the BBC. I lived in Dublin and was called out to all sorts of incidents that, if taken together, add up to a war - bombings, assassinations, riots, shootings, robberies, jailbreaks, kidnappings, and sieges.

There are some places you love with your heart, and there are some places that you love with your mind- the places that you love with both are called 'libraries'