When I was growing up, the exam system didn't allow you to write fiction, so you never did.

Sometimes adults seem as though they have cut a chord from being a child.

I don't work to any commissions. I do what I want to do.

If there is a heaven, Jane Austen is sitting in a small room with Mother Teresa and Princess Diana, listening to Duran Duran, forever. If there's a hell, she's standing.

I see people in terms of dialogue and I believe that people are their talk.

If you are a writer you're at home, which means you're out of touch. You have to make excuses to get out there and look at how the world is changing.

I've been asked why does Ireland produce so many great musicians, and the answer is it doesn't. When you count the great musicians Ireland has given the world in the last 20 years, you can do it on one hand.