Ulysses could have done with a good editor. You know people are always putting Ulysses in the top 10 books ever written but I doubt that any of those people were really moved by it.
From Roddy Doyle
I do enjoy Gothic fiction or books about zombies if they are well written and I like vampires.
I'm not recognised that much. I'm just a bald man in glasses and there's a rash of them in Dublin. It'd be different if I had a mohican.
If you're from Dublin, for example, chances are you live with your family, if you're lucky enough to, right up to the mid-20s. And most of the people I know, when they finally sort of set off on their own, they don't stray all that far.
I see people in terms of dialogue and I believe that people are their talk.
My novels come from within me; they are things I feel I want to do.
Schools don't really allow failure and yet it's a valid part of any endeavour, not just writing.
The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.
No matter how close to personal experience a story might be, inevitably you are going to get to a part that isn't yours and, actually, whether it happened or not becomes irrelevant. It is all about choosing the right words.
When I started writing full time I had not long stopped being a teacher and when at last I had a full day to write, I would put music on and wonder to myself - am I allowed to do this? Then I thought: 'I am control of this and no one is telling me what I can do.'
2 perspectives
1 perspectives