My Father Was Very Outwardly Religious.

I Feel I Grew Up In A Different Century Than I Live In. I Think Most Of Them Are Changes For The Good.

Among Its Many Other Obligations, Fiction Always Has To Be Believable. Life Does Not Have To Suffer Such Constraint, And Much Of What Takes Place Is Believable Only Because It Happens.

Yes, But Also One Of The Problems For A Novelist In Ireland Is The Fact That There Are No Formal Manners. I Mean Some People Have Beautiful Manners But There's No Kind Of Agreed Form Of Manners.

I Think Fiction Is A Very Serious Thing, That While It Is Fiction, It Is Also A Revelation Of Truth, Or Facts.

I Used To Take Five Or Six Books Away And Bring Five Or Six Books Back. Nobody Gave Me Direction Or Advice And I Read Much In The Way That A Boy Might Watch Television.