What I tend to get from America is very enthusiastic letters and e-mail from librarians and schoolteachers, the gatekeepers, though I hesitate to use that word. I've never been a huge seller.
I find it very difficult to say no when I'm in Ireland. You do end up going around doing lots of events and things and not getting work done, and it's not just a question of having hours at the desk.
I found it really hard for a couple of years to do any writing because all I wanted to do was play the fiddle. From the minute I took it up, I just couldn't put it down.
What I do find enormously gratifying is the reviews my books get from the American press. They are so on the ball compared to anywhere else. It's so satisfying to get a review that conveys the reader understood precisely what I was trying to get at.
You know yourself, once you've had the excitement of riding thoroughbreds, it's not very interesting riding anything else. But I still love horses; I just don't have one any more.
Writers want publicity all the time, and they are always nagging their agents and publishers to give them more publicity, but, when you get it, it's kind of soul-destroying.
I've always felt a bit hard done by in England - you know, I've won the Bisto three times in Ireland, but it has felt like nobody has even heard of me in my home country.
Children in their young teens are just moving into the moment when they are most receptive to philosophy and psychology. You can explore these things in stories and, in doing so, give them power and control.
