All I ever wanted to do is to write stories that people will enjoy and feel at home with.

All I ever wanted to do is to write stories that people will enjoy and feel at home with.

In Ireland every place you visit and every person you meet has a story. And they love to tell you their stories. Everyone is interested in everything; in a land of storytellers, you will never be bored.

I believed that old people never laughed. I thought they sighed a lot and groaned. They walked with sticks, and they didn't like children on bicycles or roller skates or with big dogs.

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 had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you're going to be an Irish writer.

Happiness is knowing and appreciating what you've got. I am very, very, very grateful for what, to me, is dead easy.