Anything that is given can be at once taken away. We have to learn never to expect anything, and when it comes it's no more than a gift on loan.

When I start to write, words have become physical presence. It was to see if I could bring that private world to life that found its first expression through reading. I really dislike the romantic notion of the artist.

As a writer, I write to see. If I knew how it would end, I wouldn't write. It's a process of discovery.

I think fiction is a very serious thing, that while it is fiction, it is also a revelation of truth, or facts.

I've never written anything that hasn't been in my mind for a long time - seven or eight years.

Yes, but also one of the problems for a novelist in Ireland is the fact that there are no formal manners. I mean some people have beautiful manners but there's no kind of agreed form of manners.

I'd much prefer to write more quickly.