I think if you've got something to say and you can say it with less, that's the way to go. - Philip Ó Ceallaigh

The ‘novel’ is a publishing convention that deforms the story. If more attention were given to form there would be fewer novels and better stories. There's no reason a publisher can’t put out a story that's a hundred or even seventy pages long. But a publisher will look at a story like that as defective novel, ineligible for shortlists. It should be in a collection. Or pumped full of air, turned into a novel… It's a pity. You see some good writers behaving like performing monkeys.

I called the boss a ‘fucker’ one day – not to his face, but it got back to him – so that was the end.

I was kind of solitary. I'd spend a lot of time on my own, reading books. I didn't integrate very well.