I've been fascinated by the idea that evil is the absence of empathy.

I find that I take a great deal of pleasure knowing I get up people's noses to some degree.

There is a very conservative element of crime writers that don't recognise what I do is crime fiction.

Writers are magpies by nature, always collecting shiny things, storing them away and looking for connections of things.

The only person who needs to know about failure is yourself.

I feel that I'll be buried in Ireland and don't think I'll ever live in the U.S. I'm not comfortable with many aspects of U.S. society - especially the justice system.