Any book is a self-help guide if you can take something from it.
I'm not a fan of self-help books - how can something be 'self-help' if the book itself is purportedly helping you?
I never expected to write a book about a slum in Ireland that was going to catapult me, as they say, into some kind of - onto the best seller list.
I think there's a difference between having a bestselling book - meaning through marketing, PR and buying that first wave of customers - and writing a bestselling book. The second implies that the product propels itself to the best seller list.
All the women in my life have been librarians, English teachers and book sellers.
I think that any writer who is commercial, who sells a lot of books, has to face criticism. Because the more hermetic and the more difficult your book is, supposedly it's better.
In 1965, I was teaching a seminar on freedom when I told my students that the ultimate freedom lay in casting a dice to decide what to do. They were so shocked and fascinated that I knew I had to write the book.
I went to a seminar early in my career on the craft of storytelling by Robert McKee. It was really life altering. There are basic principles on how to craft an engaging story and he covers them well. He's got a book out, 'Story,' that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in improve their storytelling.
Young or old, a writer sends a book into the world, not himself.
'God' - as revealed in his book of edicts and narratives is practically an idiot. He has nothing to say that any sensible person should want to listen to.
Now, I - for several years while I was researching this book, I felt quite obsessed by thoughts about sentencing, punishment, how judges arrive at their decisions.
Sequencing - the careful striptease by which you reveal information to the reader - matters in an article, but it is absolutely essential to a book.
I had written a book that dealt with really serious issues. Was anybody going to want to read a Christmas love story from me?
I started writing when I was twenty, and my first book came out seventeen years later.
I fell asleep reading a dull book and dreamed I kept on reading, so I awoke from sheer boredom.
I have written a book. This will come as quite a shock to some. They didn't think I could read, much less write.
I was a bookworm in school, and in those days it was easy to get books. Bigger cities had book shops.
I have a very short attention span, so sitting down with a book is very difficult for me.
I read a blog about this young filmmaker in the Philippines who made a short film, and one of the characters in the film reads my novel and then starts discussing the novel with someone. The idea that my book can inspire another artist and be part of that other artist's work... that's the reason I write.
To be quite honest, the joyful relief of the publication of my book was short-lived.
