Marian Keyes

I know of people who don't believe it, but depression is an illness, but unlike, say, a broken leg, you don't know when it'll get better.

Here's how it is: I feel guilty about every single bite of food that goes into my mouth.

Bizarrely, I actually feel safer the older I get, like people will expect less from me, and I can become more and more invisible, yet more and more eccentric.

Love is an emotion. It can't be seen or touched, and it is experienced differently by everyone, therefore it is difficult to measure.

When I was growing up, I despised Irishness. I felt our music, our television and our books were just poor imitations of what came out of Britain and America. I was all set to abandon it entirely.

Many nations use language simply to convey information, but it's different in Ireland. With most conversational exchanges you get an 'added extra' like the free little biscuit you sometimes get with a cappuccino in a fancy coffee place.

I haven't had Botox because my face is a bit lopsided and I depend on keeping everything animated so that people don't notice.

Writing about feeling disconnected has enabled me to connect, and that has been the most lovely thing of all.

I've never made a secret of the fact that I'd have loved to have children.

I used to feel defensive when people would say, 'Yes, but your books have happy endings', as if that made them worthless, or unrealistic. Some people do get happy endings, even if it's only for a while. I would rather never be published again than write a downbeat ending.

When you're a mass-market writer, people think that you can just decide 'this happens, this happens, this happens', whereas with literary writers it's coming from their soul and their core. But with me it does come from my soul and my core, and my soul and my core often go AWOL, and then I've nothing to write.

My mother is the best storyteller. And her mother was too.

My truth is that what doesn't kill you makes you weaker rather than stronger, although it makes you wiser.

I'm quite introverted but I'm not shy.

I'd rather dig a ditch than go to a dinner party with people I don't know.

I think reviewers are sexist... This isn't to sound bitter, but I think you're more likely to get a critical kicking if you're a woman. I just think that's a fact. I really think less value is put in general on women's voices, across the board.

I am prone to despair. We are all born with a particular personality. I get afraid and then I don't want to leave the house.

I went grey at 12, my eyesight went at 17. I've been a crock from very early on.

Men can be men and still get excited about other men kicking a ball around and they're never mocked, whereas it's easy for women to take mocking on board, to be belittled. Because we're used to it.

I don't like this idea of division: that if you're a clever woman then you've got to be a particular way. Because men don't. Men please themselves.