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Stories in families are colossally important. Every family has stories: some funny, some proud, some embarrassing, some shameful. Knowing them is proof of belonging to the family.

With family dramas, it's hard to keep those stories alive.

One of the things that's important about family is the narrative history they create for themselves.

I like stories that affect families.

Families always stay the same, but they always provide more stories.

My family, although they're very large on both my parents' sides, they don't know much about their family tree. Occasionally, they try to dig, but they can't get very far, and it's baffling. In Dublin, it seems that so many public records were wiped out; it's proven to be very difficult, so I know very little.

Young writers only take off when they find their subjects. Since almost everyone has a family and stories about family, that is often a place to start.

I'm attracted to stories that deal with the family and what it's like to be a member of that family, whether it's together or apart, given the pressures that are put on it by the outside world.

My stories are fundamentally about the love of family.

The family is one of nature's masterpieces.