If I had my life to live all over again, I really think I would have been a fit person. Looking around me, I realise that the men and women who walked and ran and swam and played sport look better and feel better than the rest of us.

I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks.

Nobody is ordinary if you know where to look.

She put her head down on the table and cried all the tears that she knew she should have cried in the past year and a half. But they weren't ready then, they were now.

My brother married young, and his is the best marriage I know.

I think I'm brave because I've made decisions based - I hope not entirely selfishly - on what I think is right for me to do next.

If I see Marian Keyes' books or Patricia Scanlan's books given more prominence than mine in the bookstore, I'll move mine to the front. I've told them I do this, and they've confessed to doing the same thing to me.