There is cruelty in the world Eliza, you can see that, can't you? It surrounds us. It breathes on us. We spend our life trying to escape it.

It's not easy making a living as a writer, and for many years I worked at a Waterstones in Dublin. It was a good environment for an aspiring writer, with lots of events and authors appearing.

(J)ust because your version of normal isn't the same as someone else's version doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you.

There's things that happen in a person's life that are so scorched in the memory and burned into the heart that there's no forgetting them.

Today people can see and protest all the different interests that want war to happen, the people it financially benefits. The First World War wasn't fought for that reason. The Second World War wasn't fought for that reason. Your entire country and way of life could be overtaken.

War today is such a more visible thing. We see it on television, on CNN. In 1914, war was a concept.

It reminds me of how grandmother always had the right costume for me to wear. You wear the right outfit and you feel like the person you're pretending to be.