#speechmarks

There are a lot of people who probably enjoyed 'Conversations with Friends' who are part of the system that is actively exploiting other people's labor. I am sure there are landlords who read it and thought it was a great read. Am I happy that I have given those people 10 hours of distraction? Not really!

I feel like I could devote myself to far more important things than writing novels.

To feel that literature has any politically redemptive power at all just seems increasingly naive.

I thought school was immensely boring, and as a teenager, I often found social life quite mystifying... I was not someone to whom it came easily to be charming.

I started writing 'Normal People' not knowing that anyone would read it, not knowing that anyone would read the first book, so I didn't really have any hang-ups about, 'Oh, I can't do this again. I've done this already.' It was just a project I was working on for my own amusement.

I am not trying to speak for anyone else, never mind an entire generation. I don't even know what that means.

Writing in the first person, you immediately open yourself up to the idea that there's a connection between you and the narrator.

A lot of people ask me, did debating help me as a writer, and I honestly don't know.