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" I don't buy into the idea that an Irish writer should write about Ireland, or a gay writer should write about being gay. "

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" People try to glorify war, particularly those who aren't actually fighting in them. People tend to make heroes of those who are fighting in them. "

" Throughout my teenage years, I read 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens every December. It was a story that never failed to excite me, for as well as being a Dickens enthusiast, I have always loved ghost stories. "

" I hope for so much from every book I read. And time and again, I find myself disappointed. I look across my bookshelves and see hundreds of titles which in my memory seem merely mediocre or second-rate. Only occasionally does a novel appear for which I feel a lasting passion, a book that I think could in time become a classic. "

" Unless you're very boring, I think most people who've lived long enough have something in their past which will never go away. "

" What makes a classic is difficult to define. It's entirely subjective, of course. And the term is employed far too promiscuously. "

" Children's authors don't talk down or patronise their younger readers. "

" It's not easy making a living as a writer, and for many years I worked at a Waterstones in Dublin. It was a good environment for an aspiring writer, with lots of events and authors appearing. "

" War today is such a more visible thing. We see it on television, on CNN. In 1914, war was a concept. "

" I suppose books are my real passion in life. "

" I wrote my first book at 20, but my whole focus from about the age of 12 was to be a writer. "

" I am opposed to war, to killing people, to any kind of hatred and violence. "

" I can remember being eight, and I like writing about that age of innocence when children still have a sense of wonder. "

" I move between the two: I write an adult novel, and then I write a children's book. I quite enjoy that. It's a nice change of pace each time. "