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I got my first book deal when I was in college, but it was published in Germany, and I could never actually read it.

My book collection is primarily in America, since that's where I've lived most of my life.

The arts are very alive in Ireland, so that had its influence on me. But I consider myself European, really.

I don't think I could set a book in a place without knowing it really well.

The first book I did - the first successful book - was a kind of a travel book, and publishers in Britain encouraged me to do more.

I feel as though I've gotten to a point where I don't really want to set a book in any real place ever again.

The biggest markets for my books outside the UK are France and Italy, and those are the two countries where I also have the closest personal relationships with my translators - I don't know whether that's a coincidence, or if there's something to be learned from it.

I had no books at home. I started to frequent a public library in Lisbon. It was there, with no help except curiosity and the will to learn, that my taste for reading developed and was refined.

I have a European frame of mind and Europe is my home.