I was interested in the ripples of feminism passing through Britain and Ireland in the mid-Seventies - how the reverberations of the… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
Always, at the end of every book, there are things you will be unsatisfied with, and still more things that later on… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
In the course of writing a book I'll produce loads of pieces of paper to help the novel itself. Diagrams, charts, family… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
The key thing in my becoming a writer was going on a Arvon Foundation residential writing course. I took with me a… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
The role you've been ascribed in childhood can twist or break apart or seem outgrown, especially when you have your own family… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
You need a lot of energy to get a novel finished. You need an ability to ignore everyone around you. It's why… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
Despite being from Ireland, I've always avoided writing about it, for two reasons. For a very small country, Ireland has produced an… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
Spending a lot of time away from home was strange. My parents visited me, obviously, but I was in hospital a lot,… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
She wanted to say, no. She wanted to say, I have a son, there is a child, this cannot happen. Because you know that… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
Two and a half thousand left-handed people are killed every year using things made for right-handed people. — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
I don't believe in fate. I don't believe in cushioning your insecurities with a system of belief that tells you 'Don't worry. This may… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
I met a retired police detective. And he said to me that the interesting thing about heatwaves, from a police perspective, is that the… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
While I was writing the book, one of my children was diagnosed with dyslexia. Dyslexia is a very tiny word for a wide-ranging neurological… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
“Why is it that twenty-four hours in the company of your family is capable of reducing you to a teenager?” — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
I think it's dangerous to have lots of time on your hands as a writer. Time to pursue every little alleyway, to follow every… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
I think all families have these secrets, and it's sometimes the strangest things that bring them out. That was part of my interest in… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
My husband, William Sutcliffe, the writer, is my first reader and in many ways my most important. That initial reading of the manuscript is… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
She liked the way his smile took a long time to arrive and just as long to leave. — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
“That's because they're of the past. All photos of the past look melancholy and wistful precisely because they capture something that's gone.” — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
We always planned to move back to the Republic but it never happened, I'm not sure why. My dad is one of those immigrants… — Maggie O'Farrell Copy Share Image
