"There's no such thing as a life that is not normal, or, there's no such thing as a life that is not ..." — Anne Enright

You write a book and you finish the book. That's your job done, right? You win the Booker and you have a whole new job. You have to be the thing, right? So instead of writing the story, you somehow are the story. And that I found that sort of terrible.

I became a full-time writer in 1993 and have been very happy, insofar as anybody is, since.

If you can just actually let the character be for a bit, then you get the right sense.

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.