The rosary was said every evening. I always liked that sentence about the medieval Churches, that they were the Bibles of the poor. The Church was my first book and I would think it is still my most important book.

I love the description of Gothic churches before the printed word, that they were the bibles of the poor.

This is why I have always said that it would be better if Muslims were poor.

Amongst Women concentrated on the family, and the new book concentrates on a small community. The dominant units in Irish society are the family and the locality. The idea was that the whole world would grow out from that small space.

I think it's linked to the realisation that we're not going to live forever and that the way of saying and the language become more important than the story.

The first sentence of a book is a promise.