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

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.

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.

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.

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

I'm going to sound like an old man but at my age, it's lovely doing something that you've never done before.