It won't be long before we'll be deafened by the screeches of whistles being blown by whistle-blowers blowing the whistle on themselves.

The greater the novel, the more it is apt to embody the special, non-replicable properties of the written medium.

It used to be the case that for an Irishman to come to the U.S. involved a perilous journey on a ship. It involved singing lots of songs before you left saying goodbye, and once you were in the U.S., it involved singing lots of songs about how you were never going to set foot in Ireland again.

If what you want to do is write, then it's madness not to do it.

Novel-writing is a bit like deception. You lie as little as you possibly can. That's the way I do it, anyway.

It won't be long before we'll be deafened by the screeches of whistles being blown by whistle-blowers blowing the whistle on themselves.

I certainly want to continue to write in a way that's intimate. I love books where you feel you're having a romance with the writer.