One Of The Reasons I Write Is

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.

There Are Men Who Would Do Anything, Asleep, And I'm Not Sure What Stops Them When They Wake. I Do Not Know How They Draw The Line.

I Do Wish I Could Write Like Some Of The American Women, Who Can Be Clever And Heartfelt And Hopeful; People Like Lorrie Moore And Jennifer Egan. But Ireland Messed Me Up Too Much, I Think, So I Can't.

I've Heard People, Usually Writers, Say That No One Wrote A Great Book After Winning The Booker, But I Honestly Did Not Feel Any Big Pressure. The Gathering Did Hang Over Me In That It Was Darker Than I Thought At The Time.

There Are So Few People Given Us To Love. I Want To Tell My Daughters This, That Each Time You Fall In Love It Is Important, Even At Nineteen. Especially At Nineteen. And If You Can, At Nineteen, Count The People You Love On One Hand, You Will Not, At Forty, Have Run Out Of Fingers On The Other. There Are So Few People Given Us To Love And They All Stick.