I Think It’s Very Important To Write

I Was Raised In A Very Old Fashioned Ireland Where Women Were Reared To Be Lovely.

I Love The Characters Not Knowing Everything And The Reader Knowing More Than Them. There's More Mischief In That And More Room For Seriousness, Too.

I Find Being Irish Quite A Wearing Thing. It Takes So Much Work Because It Is A Social Construction. People Think You Are Going To Be This, This, And This.

Imagine That You Are Dying. If You Had A Terminal Disease Would You ­finish This Book? Why Not? The Thing That Annoys This 10-weeks-to-live Self Is The Thing That Is Wrong With The Book. So Change It. Stop Arguing With Yourself. Change It. See? Easy. And No One Had To Die.

It Is Very Hard To Trace The Effect Of Words On A Life.