You know people are always putting Ulysses in the top 10 books ever written but I doubt that any of those people were really moved by it.

It's hard for me to measure them, or to assess my books because I'm so close to them.

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.

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.

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

I wasn't even aware of the Year of the Family. I couldn't give a toss. These things - the year of the family, the year of the three-legged dog. I think it's all trash.

I like naming characters.