When you grow up on an island, what matters is how you stand to the sea.

I tend to plan as I write. And I want to leave myself open and the character open to keep on going until it seems to be the time to stop.

The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.

I wouldn't go out of my way to experience the indignity of middle-age just because it might be good meat for a story.

I'm not recognised that much. I'm just a bald man in glasses and there's a rash of them in Dublin. It'd be different if I had a mohican.

It's great meeting children because you never know what they will say.

It's a big con job. We have sold the myth of Dublin as a sexy place incredibly well; because it is a dreary little dump most of the time.