I was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland and it is still home to me. My writing has taken me all over the world, but this is the place I come back to and the place where I find it easiest to write.

The strong survive, but the courageous triumph.

A boy and a girl, dressed in the T-shirts and denim that are the shabby uniform of this age.

They ex­pect­ed to lose. And there­fore, they lost. [..] Peo­ple who start think­ing deep dark thoughts in the mid­dle of a war start ex­pect­ing to lose.

Master the rules of the game until you can play it better they can.

Some stories wait their turn to be told, others just tap you on the shoulder and insist you tell them.

A warrior with a cause is the most dangerous soldier of all

You might argue that the history of contemporary art is a series of avant-garde movements, each new wave outraging the last.

The problem with contemporary art is that no one bothers to do the research necessary to give people what they want.

At the heart of every legend there is a grain of truth.

He who retreats lives longer.

It was always a mistake, she thought, to dwell on the cause of one's anger.

Do not wait to know you are dying before you start living.

People always have secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what they are.

Success is not to be pursued it is to be attracted by the person you become.

We know that permanent sobriety can be attained only by a most revolutionary change in the life and outlook of the individual.

I need the sea because it teaches me

Writing should be like skirts. Long enough to cover what it needs to cover and short enough to maintain interest.

Some mistakes will be made along the way. That's good. Because some decisions are being made along the way. We'll find the mistakes. We'll fix them.

There's no secret about my ambition, I do not want to go into the House of Commons. My only real political interest is in London and if one day I'm in a position to run for mayor, then terrific.

I didn't want to be a fashion designer, and for a good half of my career I didn't like it. I always wanted to do other things.