In order really to write one has to sink deep into the self and become lost there.

All a work of art can do is present the surface. I can't know the insides of people. I know very little about the inside of myself.

I live in Dublin, God knows why. There are greatly more congenial places I could have settled in - Italy, France, Manhattan - but I like the climate here, and Irish light seems to be essential for me and for my writing.

Doing what you do well is death. Your duty is to keep trying to do things that you don't do well, in the hope of learning.

I never went to university. I'm self-educated. I didn't go because I was too impatient, too arrogant.

I like ideas. I find them more exciting than human behavior for the most part.

I am the worst judge of my books.